Teacher, cop, mafia kingpin and a journalist – Nawazuddin Siddiqui is known for his eclectic choice of characters. After stretching the range to the widest possibility, with Manto, the actor is now ready for perhaps his biggest challenge till date. Now that the film has made it to prestigious Un Certain Regard section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the hopes are high. “We are happy that our team is representing Indian cinema at the global platform and what can be better than Cannes which is one of the most coveted festivals in the world,” says the actor who is all set to attend the annual event that will be held between May 8 and May 19 this year.
Be it Lunchbox or Raman Raghav 2.0 , his reputation in the international festival circuit is that of an artist who plays nuanced realistic characters, different from the usual Bollywood fare. Has he become the face of festival films? “Aap bataiye chehre me kya hai(What is in the face?),” he bursts into laughter. “You cannot predict which film will be screened at the festival. I think it is just about choosing the right film at the right time. This suggests that I am on the right track and that brings more belief in me for taking tough decisions,” he asserts.
He will be visiting the French Riviera for the ninth time but has there been a fanboy moment for him? “I remain busy throughout the festival because of the red carpets, interviews and sometimes there is more than one film in the festival. Also, as I am not a party person, there are fewer chances of meeting people. Log mujhe pakadne ki koshish karte hain aur main unke hath nahi aata,” he quips. However, once he had something special to take back home . “In 2014, some local farmers were attending the festival and they took me to the agriculture fields of Nice and I was astonished by their unique technique of irrigation. I took that technique to my own village and it has been put to good use. I had no idea that such an exchange of ideas can happen during the visit,” he remembers.
Saadat Hasan Manto had a reputation of writing on topics that were otherwise not discussed in the elite literary circuits. Nawaz says physical similarities were not enough to understand the character of the much-acclaimed writer. “You have to bare your soul , if you want to understand him. I knew that I could only do this if I am truthful to myself. If I look like him because of the costume or the make-up, it is not my win but that of the concerned department. Manto is what you think of him as thoughts are the most difficult part of a personality to portray, and if you get hold of them, the process becomes smooth. He always promoted truth and you can understand him if you are looking for truth. He was bitter because he was honest,” reflects the actor.
Appreciating the role of director Nandita Das in helping him understand Manto, he describes her as a sensible human being who is aware of what is happening around her. “Nandita has closely observed life. Her five years of research has reflected in the thoughts and personality she has built for Manto. Had she been male, she would have played it better than me as she is totally into Manto's mind. It was very helpful for me as an actor,” he says.
As someone who has done a mix of both commercial potboilers and critically-acclaimed films, he is still figuring out what lies for him in acting. And the typical Bollywood formula does not work for him. “I don’t understand the binary of hero and villain. Though I have done certain negative roles; they are not archetypal villains for me. They are humans with flaws,” says the actor who shot to fame with Gangs of Wasseypur . “How can a hero be without any flaws? If you are doing so, you are not showing a man but someone very fake who does not exist in your village, community, and you do not know him. How can you relate to him then? I want to do roles which allow me to understand human psyche which has both negative and positive sides,” he adds.
For him, each character is a chance to understand his truth and to give birth to that character he has to start from zero. “You have to be totally out of the previous character in order to understand the present one. Multiple feelings are stored in your subconscious mind and they come to fore whenever you are doing a role that require their expression. Ben Kingsley rightly said that the stage demands acting, the camera explores behaviour. That is the power of cinema that it goes beyond storytelling and shows minute intricacies of human psyche through audio-visual medium,” he explains.
Today, Nawaz is one of the busiest actors in the industry but fame still comes as a surprise to him. It is commonly known that he spent much of his early days in Mumbai facing a series of rejections but the long struggle period continues to give him motivation. “Each experience, even a bad one, is useful as an actor. When you have waited for this long, you know what is not for you. No one can do the role of a jobless person better than me,” sums up Nawaz with his characteristic dry wit.
