NAWAZ’S NO-HOLDS BARRED MEMOIR

Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s book, An Ordinary Life, is out today. Alongside the story of his rise as an actor, it reveals details of his love life that one may describe as ‘explosive’

When you hear the words “quite a selfish bastard” or “a rascal who only cared for himself ”, you’d imagine the speaker is talking about someone else, right? Not so in Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s memoir, An Ordinary Life, out today. Those are his descriptions of himself.

Shocking? That’s because Nawaz has decided to be scrupulously honest in his memoir. “Actually, all the girls I have ever been with have had this same complaint from me. I would only come to them for my own needs,” he writes in An Ordinary Life.

The book, alongside his journey to stardom, narrates the minutest details of his love affairs — that includes one with his Miss Lovely (2012) co-star Niharika Singh

— and those are being lapped up by gossip lovers.

The thought of people’s reaction to his unabashed “truth” did make Nawaz jittery. “I don’t know isko bahut sare log kaise judge karenge. Ho sakta hai ek bahut ajeeb si image ban jaye meri… Iss cheez ki mujhe thodi si fikr aur darr bhi hai. But it’s okay. Jo fact hai, maine wohi samne rakhne ki koshish kari,” he says.

For Bollywood stars and their fans, the revelation of such intimate personal details is explosive — Nawaz has written about a torrid onenight stand with a waitress in New York! But true to how experimental he is as an actor, the writer Nawaz is ready to break stereotypes, even if that means exposing his true self.

“I don’t think I’m a superstar, but I’m a human being first. Har insaan chahta hai, mai kisi ko zarur bataun ki mai kaisa hun. Lekin iss darr se ki log mere baare mein kya sochenge, shayad nahi batata. Yeh insaan ka nature hai… Insaan humare Bollywood ki filmon ke hero ki tarahe sarv gun sampann thodi na hota hai. Insaan ke andar kuchh achchhai hai toh kuchh buraiyan bhi toh hoti hai,” says the actor, who has done varied films such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), and this year’s Mom, and Babumoshai Bandookbaaz.

Nawaz admits that he could’ve chosen to conceal some of the facts or names, such as TV actor Achint Kaur influencing her flatmate and Nawaz’s first girlfriend Sunita to break up with the then struggling Nawaz. He gave it a lot of thought and considered the consequences. “Mujhe maloom hai ki iske baad bahut saare log bura manenge, par nahi to phir mai kyun likh raha hun,” says the actor. And finally, he decided: “Agar likhna hai to sach likho, warna mat likho.”

PHOTO: WASEEM GASHROO/HT