‘I would want all positions of power, be it that of the prime minister, chief minister or any other important post, to be handed over to women now.’
‘Men have tried all these years, bas kharab hi hua.’
‘We could do nothing right, hamari bas ki baat nahin hai.’
Photograph: Kind courtesy Nawazuddin Siddiqui/Instagram
Nawazuddin Siddiqui has completed 25 years in the film industry.
While he speaks about love and hope in the first part of an interesting interview with Rediff.com Senior Contributor Roshmila Bhattacharya, he tells her about the roles he would like to play.
It’s been almost 25 years since you made your debut in Sarfarosh. If you could turn the clock back, would you have handled your career differently?
If I had entered the industry today, I would have fared very badly.
Why do you say so?
Back then, there was no Internet, so we got first-hand experience about everything.
In today’s virtual world, actors have information overload, but they lack our experience.
And time.
Hamare paas waqt hi waqt tha to practice, but today’s generation, if they have a moment to themselves, are on Instagram.
I often wonder when they find time to work on the craft.
It’s scary because you could shine in a couple of films, but then, for lack of practice, you would get exposed.
IMAGE: Nawazuddin Siddiqui in John Mathai Mathan’s Sarfarosh.
How do you ensure that you are on top of your craft?
I only post stuff that I am asked to during promotions for a film.
Else whenever I get the time, I’m focused on my work.
If I get a character which challenges me, I immerse myself in it, work even harder.
The habit of practising is something I picked up 20-25 years ago, woh aadat aaj bhi hai.
Among your coming films, is there a character that has demanded a fair amount of homework?
There is a film titled Haddi in which I play a transgender.
After Raman Raghav and Thackeray, this film demanded a lot of mehnat from me.
I’ve seen a couple of scenes and you can see that work in the performance.
To play a transgender you have to think and feel like a woman…
Absolutely!
IMAGE: Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Haddi. Photograph: Kind courtesy Nawazuddin Siddiqui/Instagram
So after having played this character, would you say that you understand women a little better today?
Of course.
What you just said is what I had in mind too, to play this character not like a transgender, but like a woman because every transgender has only one dream: To become a woman.
While playing it, I realised that in the eyes of a woman, the world is a beautiful place because the feminine gaze is soft.
There is no maar dhaad (fights) or anything harsh in their world while we men have only used this power to start wars.
I’m tired of all this, thak chuka hain hum. I would want all positions of power, be it that of the prime minister, chief minister or any other important post, to be handed over to women now.
Men have tried all these years, bas kharab hi hua.
We could do nothing right, hamari bas ki baat nahin hai.
It’s time we handed over the reins to women. I’m sure they would do a far better job of transforming the world into a beautiful place.
IMAGE: Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Avneet Kaur in Tiku Weds Sheru. Photograph: Kind courtesy Nawazuddin Siddiqui/Instagram
Among your coming films, many of them — be it Bole Chudiyan, Tiku Weds Sheru, Noorani Chehra — are romcoms, which is surprising given your image as an intense actor.
Every actor wants to do different roles, mujh mein bhi wohi chaska hai.
After this, I want to experiment with more quirky, even absurd characters.
This year, there are all these romantic films, maybe next year I will try some other genre.
In this one life, I want to play every kind of person.
Actually, sometimes this one life seems too short for all the characters crowded in my mind.
