Nawazuddin Siddiqui reveals being guilty after working in Rajinikanth's Petta: 'It felt like I did a fraud'

One of the finest actors in the Hindi Film Industry, Nawazuddin Siddiqui also tried his hands at Tamil and Telugu films recently with his debut ventures like Petta (2019) and Saindhav (2024) respectively. That being said, while Nawazuddin’s debut Tamil film got him the chance to work with the legendary Rajinikanth, the actor recently revealed how he felt guilty after working on the 2019 film. The actor said about feeling like doing a “fraud” with the film and taking money for nothing.

In a conversation with Galatta Plus, the Gangs of Wasseypur actor said, “When I did Petta with Rajini sir, I came back from the shoot and used to feel a lot of guilt. It felt like I was charging money for something I didn’t know. It was like I was fooling everyone because I was lip-syncing to the prompting. I couldn’t understand a lot of words, but I was still doing it. Even if it turns out to be efficient, you feel very ashamed. And if you get paid for it, you ask yourself if you are committing fraud?” Directed by Karthik Subbaraj, Petta also features actors like Vijay Sethupathy, Simran, Trisha, and Sasikumar. The Rajinikanth film turned out to be a big hit and amassed over Rs 100 crore in India and more than Rs 200 crore globally. I did a lot of work on Saindhav: Nawazuddin Siddiqui Apart from talking about the conflicting emotions that he experienced during the shooting of Petta, Nawazuddin Siddiqui also opened up on how he did more work on his Telugu debut film, Saindhav, co-starring Venkatesh Daggupati. “I did everything in Saindhav. From my dubbing to understanding the meaning of every dialogue, I did everything to help reduce my guilt a bit,” he said. On the work front regarding his upcoming projects, Siddiqui will be next seen in Section 108 alongside Arbaaz Khan and Regina Cassandra. He also has films like  Adbhut, Noorani Chehra, and Sangeen in the pipeline. He was last seen in the film Haddi, wherein the actor essayed the role of a transwoman.