Nawazuddin Siddiqui On Breaking Into Bollywood In 2000s
Nawazuddin Siddiqui is enjoying the box office success of his latest film Heropanti 2. The film also stars Tiger Shroff and Tara Sutaria. This movie's character, played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, has drew rave reviews from the audience and sparked a frenzy among everyone who saw it. Nawazuddin spoke exclusively with News18.com about his role in the film, his acting career and his early struggles.
According to the actor, there were fewer possibilities for budding actors back in 2000 (the year he began his acting career), which made it more difficult to get started . “More options are available to people today because of OTT and reality shows,” Nawazuddin said. "We had to work harder back then because there weren't as many options as there are now. In 2000, when I started acting, there were just a handful of serials to choose from. All actors are really busy at the moment. Web series, movies, TV shows, and reality shows are all forms of media. This means that practically everyone is preoccupied. We had a harder time with it,” the actor explained to News18.com.
Nawazuddin also reflected on his early struggles as an actor, including the time when he was told he couldn't make it in the business. People like him, he said, "got acceptance" only as the number of realistic movies increased. “They used to tell me that I didn't look like an actor , so I should look for a different career path. This behavior is not typical of actors, and you are not one.' The question, "Why are you wasting your time?" reverberated throughout my workday. But it took me 9-10 years to get there. Realistic films were being made by new directors. With them, we emerged from the water. Those films didn't do well in the U.S., but they were well received at film festivals throughout the world. That's when commercial filmmakers started considering us for roles because they thought we were honest. Films were made with us. As a result of this, I was able to gain acceptance," the actor of Serious Men explained.
When Nawazuddin was first struggling, he was subjected to some of the cruelest remarks from others. As Nawaz recalled, he was denied a television show because the producers stated they would have to 'throw some extra lights on him' in order to make it work. In the words of the actor, ”You are unorthodox.” “What else could possibly be harsher? As a child, I was told by TV producers that they couldn't cast me because it would take too long. To meet our daily deadline, we'll need to turn on more lights. We'll lose time and money if we try to cast you. We recommend that you look elsewhere. Then I started to look for work in the movies. I was only able to acquire a few seconds of footage or a few minutes of footage out of that location. Since then, it's been like this. Afterwards, I began to receive two separate stories at once. For the next five years,it was like this,” the actor said.
When asked what kept him going through these trying times, Nawazuddin said that his desire to become an actor was the driving force. “I had planned that this (acting) is what I want to do. That was all I had to work with. I had no prior knowledge of anything else. Even if he doesn't get it for another 50 years, I'll do this," he declared.
On being questioned if he considers himself the first unusual hero of Bollywood, Nawazuddin agreed but also noted that he does not believe in all this. The actor asserted that he is not an outlier because most Indians are just like him. He went on to say that the people's perception of him as unusual is a result of their own mentality. “In my opinion, that's a given in the current Bollywood landscape. Honestly, I don't believe in this at all. In India, ninety percent of the population has the same height and skin tone as I am. If we look from India’s point of view, I am traditional. That some people are more unusual than others is just an attitude. People in India are "conventional”," he concluded.