I’ve done films just for money: Nawazuddin Siddiqui

As an actor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui has tried his hand at everything, be it playing a tough inspector in Kahaani, a menacing antagonist in Kick or even biopics such as Thackeray and Manto. He hasn’t shied away from doing masala potboilers either, and is not at all apprehensive about doing more.

“There’s nothing like I won’t do them. The thing is, when I was in National School of Drama (NSD), we would do plays of every kind — in the Sanskrit language, with Parsi songs, dialogue deliveries which were long and required us to shout, William Shakespeare, Anton Chekov, realistic too. That’s an actor’s job… to do roles of every kind,” Hindustan Times quoted the actor as saying.

This is why Siddiqui doesn’t like for actors to be labelled according to the platform or medium they perform the most, like say television or cinema. “Acting toh acting hoti hai, chaahe ped pe chadh ke karo, street pe nukkad natak ya stage pe,” he said. “A good actor will be good everywhere. Baat acting ki karo, categorise karna theek nahi hai. Har style ka film ya theatre karna chahiye, enhancement hota hai. That’s why I like acting. I get a chance to invent and discover with every film. What can be better than that?” 

In a career spanning more than two decades, Siddiqui has done more than 30 films and his journey in itself has been inspirational, from blink-and-miss appearances to playing the leading man. Have there, at any point, been any films that he regretted doing afterwards?

Siddiqui confessed that he has indeed done some only for the money. “I do such films, where I am getting a lot of money, so that I can do good cinema, where I don’t get money, or which I can do for free. I didn’t take any money for Manto. But for that three-four months process, I have to either do a film for money before or after for a balance,” he admitted.

Have something to add to the story? Share in the comments below.