A life on edge

Pakistani actor Adnan Siddiqui on faith, films, family and more

- PUJA AWASTHI

On the charm meter, Adnan Siddiqui has the force of a hurricane. As an actor, he is unmindful of the consequences of being absent from the public eye. On social media, his isms and asks have a separate, ever-growing fandom.

Siddiqui, 53, one of Pakistani entertainment industry’s best recognised faces, became India’s own in Mom (2017)—Sridevi’s last titular role before her demise in 2018. Ten years before Mom, Siddiqui starred alongside the late Irrfan Khan in A Mighty Heart.

Siddiqui’s last Pakistani drama appearance was in the wildly popular Mere Paas Tum Ho (MPTH, 2019). His most recent television outing was in Tamasha (2022)—a daring format loosely based on Big Brother. It could have turned into a moral morass, what with men and women living in the same house for 43 days in a deeply conservative country. Puritans raised some ‘lapses’, such as contestants never shown praying on TV.

Siddiqui, however, says that he is but a nautankiya (entertainer) whose screen presence entails neither judgment nor education. “One’s relationship with the Almighty, be it Allah or bhagwan, is a private matter,” he says. “Who are we to interfere?”

The introductory shot of Tamasha is of Siddiqui playing the flute—an instrument he loves as it soothes and relaxes. He carries it around the world and can leave you awestruck with his experimentations, such as teasing out ‘Hotel California’. He wanted to learn it professionally, but lessons were expensive. A flute cost just ₹40. “I thought it better to buy one and teach myself,” he says.