On the first day of the Festival of Ideas, one of the most prominent stars of Bollywood, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, gave an exclusive interview where he shared his experience on his role in “Gangs of Wasseypur”. Siddiqui has been an actor who has never shied away from experimenting with his roles in films, and he has been successful in bowling the audience over each time.
«When I was offered the role of Faizal Khan (GOW) and started acting like Al Pacino, Anurag Kashyap suggested I be Nawaz. Then I started looking for someone around me from the area I belong to from whom I could take inspiration, and then he finally found someone. So, that’s how it worked. I stayed Nawaz despite being Faizal Khan,» said Siddiqui.
«Be original; don’t try to copy anyone; be yourself,» he added. Asked which film helped establish him as an actor, he said: “I feel all films change your life in some way. However, if I had to pick one, I would say ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ changed my career completely.”
Talking about how Indian cinema is seen internationally, Siddiqui said: «There is a long way to go, and it’s not like we lack talent, but the thing is, those who have money don’t want to work on meaningful cinema, and those who want to work on such cinema lack funding.»
Recalling his debut on OTT, he said he wasn’t aware of the term OTT and thought it was a TV serial. Then, Anurag Kashyap happened to show him that these shows would make him visible to 190 countries, and that fascinated him enough to do Sacred Games, which turned out to be a great success. Currently, he is not doing OTT because he feels like passion is what is lacking in today›s series, and he doesn’t want to be part of such a project.
On how he chooses roles, he said he wants his characters to be developed; there should be conflict; they should be quirky and more alive than heroic, where everything about them is not good. He shared his experience of preparing for Thakre›s character, where he happened to keenly observe Thakre and practice his vocals.