‘Truth is not easy...but it triumphs in the end’

Portraying master storyteller Saadat Hasan Manto in Nandita Das’ film Manto has deeply influenced actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Talking about it at Jashn-e-Rekhta, the three-day Urdu festival held in Delhi, he said, “Manto ne apni life mein jo dekha woh likha. Woh cheez mere dimaag mein itni chaa gayi thi ki us dauran main itna zyada sach bolne laga ki mere pe bahut zyada

There is fear in speaking the truth. It often happens with truth that you say some and keep some. I wrote a book, where I spoke so much truth that my director said that I shouldn’t have spoken so much truth. NAWAZUDDIN SIDDIQUI, ACTOR

controversy ho gayi.” (Manto wrote what he saw. I was so influenced that I spoke a lot of truth and that led to a lot of controversies sprouting around me.)

Siddiqui recently apologised and withdrew his book, An Ordinary Life: A Memoir, after ex-girlfriends Sunita Rajwar and Niharika Singh slammed him. He said, “Mujhe realise hua ki thoda sambhal ke rehna padega. Kyunki society mein right aur wrong ka hamesha chalta hai. (I realised that I’ll have to be careful... society is quick to judge what’s wrong and right).”

He said that it’s not easy to voice the truth in today’s times. “Darr toh hota hi hai sach bolne mein pure tareeke se. Kabhi hota hai ki itna zyada sach mat bolo, thoda sa bol do, compromise wala sach chalta hain. Maine ek kitaab likhi thi, usme maine itna sach bol diya ki, toh humari director saahiba ne bola ki itna sach nahi bolna chahiye tha,” said the actor, speaking about seeking a public apology for his memoir on the insistence of his director, Nandita Das.