Guess who Nawaz credits with introducing him to OTT?
After a streak of small roles in movies such as Sarfarosh (1999), Munnabhai M.B.B.S (2003), Black Friday (2007) and Dev D (2009), it was his portrayal of Faizal Khan in Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) that helped Nawazuddin Siddiqui gain a strong foothold in Bollywood. But the National School of Drama alumnus, who has been seen across platforms, and was appreciated as Ganesh Gaitonde in web series Sacred Games, reveals he didn’t know much about any of the new mediums.
“I don’t have much idea about these platforms. It was Anurag Kashyap who introduced me to OTT, he offered me Sacred Games. And if Anurag is saying, then I just had to do it.
Anurag keeps introducing me to new mediums,” he says.
With movies such as The Lunchbox (2013), Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), Badlapur (2015), Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), Manto (2018) and Thackeray (2019) to his credit, the 45-year-old says that one should not be bothered about the box-office numbers. “As an actor, you should never work keeping in mind these factors. I feel this corrupts his/her craft. As an actor, I still look out for roles that get me out of my comfort zone and help me know my inner emotions,” he elucidates.
Nawazuddin says evolving with time is what keeps him going. “I always knew that I wanted to do roles which challenge me as an artiste. I always feel the need to keep evolving,” he shares.
While it can safely be said that the actor has virtually mastered the portrayal of roles with grey shades, but ask him which has been the most difficult character or genre he has done till date, and there’s no easy reply. “More than the genre, it is the character,” Nawazuddin says, pointing out, “There is so much detailing in every character.
As an actor, I still look out for roles that get me out of my comfort zone and help me know my inner emotions... I always feel the need to keep evolving.
ACTOR
Be it any genre, if you are doing every role the same way, then there is no point.”
And he draws on two of his gangster roles to elucidate. “Take for instance, Gangs of Wasseypur and Sacred Games. Both the roles were those of gangsters, but these characters were poles apart. There was a lot of difference in their backgrounds and their worlds,” he adds.