Nawazuddin Siddiqui confirms no third season for Netflix's Sacred Games: 'Nothing's left to say anymore'

It is admirable that Anurag Kashyap has so bravely stood up against speculation about a third season of Netflix’s monstrously longevous series _Sacred Games_ . Kashyap is very clear that the series has had its say, and there would be no further stretching out of the plot just because Netflix is offering him the sky (approximately 100 crores) for another season of Sacred Games. Nawazuddin Siddiqui  who acquired a new level of fame with Sacred Games, also admitted in a conversation with me that another season of the highly-acclaimed Netflix series seems out of the question. “Sacred Games got the kind of worldwide acclaim that none of us associated with the series had seen before. I remember shooting in Rome for Tannishtha Chatterjee’s film and over there too there were so many people talking to me about the show. So we all felt it was right to do it again, and we did a second season,” says Nawaz.

He admits Season 2 was a relative disappointment. “Perhaps somewhere the intention behind Season 2 was not as sincere as the first time. I admit Sacred Games 2 was a disappointment.”

As for Season 3, Nawaz sees little chance of that happening. “Whatever had to be said from the original novel has already been said. There is nothing left in Vikram Chandra’s novel to be put in Season 3.” Nawaz admits his character in Sacred Games and the dialogues were very popular. “But I can’t take credit for the popularity of the lines that I spoke. I didn’t write them. In India, we often give credit to the actor for a popular line. In Yash Chopra Saab’s Deewaar, Shashi Kapoor Saab spoke the line, ‘Mere Paas Maa Hai’. But it was Salim-Javed who write that line. So the credit must go to them.” “When I did Sacred Games for Netflix, there was an excitement and challenge around the digital medium. New talent was being given a chance, now that freshness is gone. It’s become dhanda (racket) for big production houses and actors who are now so-called stars on the OTT platform. Major film producers in Bollywood have cut lucrative deals with all the big players in the OTT field. Producers get whopping amounts to create unlimited content. The quantity has killed quality,” says Nawaz sadly. He finds OTT the shows unbearable now. “When I can’t bear to watch them how can I bear to be in them?” The actor par excellence fears the growth of a parallel star system on the OTT. “Yeh star system bade parde ko kha gaya (this star system killed the big screen). Now we have so-called stars on OTT claiming big money and throwing tantrums like Bollywood A-listers. They forget. Content is king. Woh zamana chala gala. When stars ruled. Before this lockdown and the digital domination A-listers would release their films in 3,000 theatres across the country. People had no choice but to see them. Now they have unlimited choices.” Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.