EXCLUSIVE | Nawazuddin Siddiqui: 'Fans are very loyal to their stars in South, that loyalty is fading away in Bollywood'

Nawazuddin Siddiqui made his first on-screen appearance in Sarfarosh in 1999 in a brief but brutal scene with Aamir Khan and Mukesh Rishi. He’s being interrogated with his clothes stripped off his body. The film released on April 30, 1999, and this exclusive interview with the actor happened a day after (May 1) 24 years later. In this interaction, the actor speaks about his topsy-turvy journey, the Hindi film industry’s obsession with stereotypes, the post-pandemic choices of the audiences, and what drew him to the character and subject of his upcoming film Jogira Sara Ra Ra.

First taking about his journey as an actor, he says, “It has been a very interesting journey full of ups and downs and that’s how life is. In these last 24 years, my inner world, my thoughts have improved a lot. Hopefully I can progress in the coming years of my life as well.”

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With more than a decade of success behind him, what are the aspects of a script he’s attracted to? The actor reveals, “I first look at my character because I’m a selfish actor. I look at the arc of my character and the thought of the director, and what’s also important is to see if your thought is matching the director’s or not and if the two of you are on the same page or not.“

What fascinated him the most about the character of Jogi? He quips, “He’s a very jugaadu banda. He can do anything and nobody in the world will be able to understand it. And that’s also the mind of the youngsters of our country today. The commonness we Indians have is more of a talent than jugaad. That’s what I liked about the character and the script.”

Are Jogi and Nawaz similar in any ways? “Similarities are always there. There are then certain qualities that exist in all of us. If you continue to observe someone, you may think he or she is similar to me,” says Siddiqui.

There’s Sanjay Mishra in the film as well. What are his fond memories of the actor and how long the two of them go back? He reveals, “Sanjay Mishra is a great soul, great human being, great actor. What should I say about him? He’s my senior from National School of Drama, I’ve always respected him and always will. His body of work is immensely beautiful.”

During the pandemic, when the globe was watching content across languages at home, there was a discussion on social media about the viewers keen to watch similar stuff once the cinemas reopen. However, the post-pandemic period saw the audiences getting inclined more towards masala and massy stuff whereas that very content was relegated to OTT. Why the irony?

Siddiqui opens, “It’s a nice question. Interesting. I was also thinking people would start watching good films post the pandemic but the opposite happened. One of the reasons why this has happened is because the pandemic made people get used to sitting at home and watching content on mobiles. We see one-minute reels for over two hours and once we go to our washrooms and come back, we completely forget what we saw. The sustainable habit of watching films for two hours has ended. The second reason is that popcorns have become very expensive, this and that. But people have always been watching films in the South and they do even now; they respect their stars and are very loyal to them. Somewhere that loyalty is fading away here and I don’t know what the reason is but I would like to know. If people become keen to watch good films in cinemas the way they did on OTT, it’s good otherwise I don’t see any hope.“

Has OTT acted as a boon for actors and filmmakers wanting to tell different stories, unique stories?

He has an interesting take on it- “Whenever something new happens in our industry, it happens for a good cause, at least in the beginning. _Sacred Games_ was the biggest show at that time, but then we thrive on herd mentality. Suppose there’s a web series that stars you and me, you praise me and I praise you on social media and it becomes a success. It becomes difficult to dissect how it’s a success or perhaps a failure.“

On keen to doing romance and what to expect from Jogira Sara Ra Ra and Tiku Weds Sheru

The kind of romance that exists in India, not the filmy romance. The romance we see in films is completely different and has no connection to reality. There’s a beautiful man and a beautiful woman, she has no idea what he does for a living and yet falls in love with him; he beats five-six people and she falls in love. I’m talking about the romance that exists in the heartland of India, the romance that’s rooted.

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