Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the price of stardom

There was something extraordinary about Nawazuddin Siddiqui when I saw him for the first time in Kabir Khan’s New York. He played a victim of cultural targeting. In a monologue that rips a hole in your soul, Nawaz’s character comes on camera to tell us what was done to him and his family by the cops on suspicion of terror activities.

The voice, the eyes, brimming with unspeakable pain, looked like a video recording of a real-life victim, like a Jew or a Kashmiri Pandit telling us what he has gone through during the holocaust. When I asked Kabir where he had got that documentary footage he laughed, “No no that’s not real footage. That’s a brilliant unknown actor named Nawazuddin Siddiqui.”

That’s how our association began. Since New York, Nawaz has effortlessly climbed from glory to glory. He has been feted by both the national and the international press. They just can’t get enough of him. The highlight of global renown for Nawaz was when he was called handsome and compared with the legendary actor Marcello Mastroianni by the Italian press.

I have never seen him happier. “Marcello Mastroianni???!!! Oh my God! He is the ultimate in good looks. The consummate matinee idol. And to be compared to him. Main kabhi sapne mein bhi nahin socha tha (I never thought even in my dreams that this would happen to me). I always had a persecution complex about my dark skin and looks. I never thought of myself as handsome. When I would tell my folks that I wanted to be an actor back in my hometown Budhana, they would react with sarcasm. ‘Tu apne aap ko bada Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna samjhta hai?’ (who do you think you are?). I would look myself in the mirror and be stricken with self-doubt. Was I really cut out for acting?”

What kept Nawaz going through twelve years of struggle in Mumbai? “It was my belief that I had the talent. I may not be good-looking like the gora-chitta filmy heroes of yesteryears who were always coming first-class-first in their studies. But I had what it takes to be an actor. Back then I’d sign any small part that came my way. When you have your belly to fill you don’t go into the aesthetics of your vocation. You just take what comes your way.”

The breakthrough performance was, not Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs Of Wasseypur or Sacred Games, as most believe. It was a film called Patang in 2012 where Nawaz played a small part. He was hailed by America’s most famous critic Roger Ebert who invited Nawaz to his home.

“I respect all critics. But Roger Ebert is God. He called me home, offered me tea and snacks, and spoke to me like I was a brilliant actor. It was a high point in my life. Going suddenly from a struggler to an actor who is noticed by the world’s eminent critics, was more than a dream come true. Meeting Roger Ebert was definitely a high point. Another high point was Gangs Of Wasseypur. Anurag Kashyap gave me a commercial standing. That’s why when he asked me to just a voice performance in AK Versus AK I happily agreed. It is important to not get carried away when fame and fortune come knocking after years of struggle,” opines Nawaz.

His marriage went through some turbulent times for three years. Now Nawaz says it’s all good. “I have never been more at peace with myself. I don’t regret doing anything. Even when there was so much being said on my marriage I didn’t utter a word. It’s best to wait for the storm to pass.”

Nawaz brings in his birthday at Cannes. This is not the first time he is doing so. “It is my good fortune that my birthday coincides with the Cannes Film Festival. What better way to celebrate than with the best in world cinema?”

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.

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