Basking in the stupendous success of his latest film, the rough and tough actor opened up to me in an EXCLUSIVE interview. Watch video!
Nawazuddin Siddiqui has been one of the most talented actors in B-Town these days. Apart from giving us classy performances like Miss Lovely, The Lunchbox, Liar’s Dice, etc, he has also given us some of the best massy performances in Kahaani, Gangs Of Wasseypur, Kick and, of late, Badlapur.
I happened to catch up with the actor at his Yari Road office recently, where he opened up about Badlapur’s success, his career ups and downs, future projects and working with the three big Khans. As I was setting up the cameras for the interview, I felt a deep sense of respect for his humbleness as he sat through all the run checks before the final roll. Being such a big star, I had never though he would sit through all of that, but his humility touched me and thereby began a series of friendly questions which he happily responded to. Excerpts from our conversation:
People have been talking everywhere only about Badlapur. What sort of responses are you getting for your character Liak?
To be honest, none of us among the cast and crew expected such a response for the film. Mainly because it’s a very dark concept and on top there was the India-South Africa cricket match on the same weekend. Still, we got a stupendous response from the crowd. It had never expected audiences to stand up and clap for my film. That was something that I saw with Badlapur and all thanks to Sriram Raghavan for creating this character of Liak for me.
Before the film people had this thought that Varun Dhawan would overshadow your character, but now after the release people have seen that your role is way better than his. Do you think you have overshadowed his performance?
Putting it this way is wrong. I feel this film is about two characters. One who turns from good to bad and the other who turns from bad to good throughout the length of the film. Both have their moments and neither has overshadowed each other.
There is a scene in the film where Liak confesses to Raghu that he has killed his wife and kid, but Raghu doesn’t react and lets Liak go. Why so?
Actually Raghu knows that Liak is suffering from cancer and will die eventually in a year’s time. So he didn’t want to kill him then and there. On another note, he wants to enjoy that sadistic pleasure of seeing Liak die a bit every day.
You have worked with the big Khans in the past and now with young guns like Varun. What sort of difference in the approach to a script do you see in them?
There is no such difference. Everyone is an actor in their own space and all actors approach characters to the best of their abilities. Varun, especially I would like to appreciate because he went completely out of his league and chose this script.
When can we see you again working with the Khans?
I am doing Bajrangi Bhaijaan with Salman Khan and Raees with Shah Rukh Khan.
Nawaz had his characteristic style of voicing out his opinions. He had his certain way of not ducking any questions and yet impressing me as the anchor. So go ahead BollywoodLifers, watch this entire candid tête-à-tête with Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the video below and let me know your thoughts on the same.