Few Biopics Stand the Test of Time...you Have to Get It Right

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who recently stirred the social media with his picture as Saadat Hasan Manto, continues to do interesting projects that have him making characters come alive in a way that only he can. At his work-cum-house space at Yari Road in Mumbai, he speaks to Prachi Pinglay-Plumber about the processes that an actor must go through, his choices ranging from small films like Haramkhor to a lavish series with BBC, the Hindi film ind ustry and his brother’s short film on triple talaq. Excerpts:

- Prachi Pinglay-Plumber

How did you prepare for Manto, when not much is known about him? Your picture created quite a buzz on social media.

Yes, not much is known about him. Even when he died in Pakistan, there were just a small news items in both countries announcing his death. There has been work on his stories but not on him. Our director Nandita Das has been immersed in this project for five years now. She has been reading Manto, eating Manto, sleeping Manto…she has become Manto. A director shares all these details with the actor, so I learnt a lot from those conversations—his characteristics, habit, style of writing, she just knows so much. She met his three daughters.

In craft you can do two things—either you enter the character through his mind, emo­tions and then physical appearance, habits, style or the other way round. I started working on it physically. I started wearing kurta pyj­ama, high waist pants and reading his books. I gave two to three months for preparation, to go back into those days. We are using the same dialogues that he wrote... so hard hitting.

What do you think about all the biopics that are being made nowadays?