When it comes to reveling in rags to riches stories, there's none bigger than that of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's in Bollywood. His is also perhaps the most interesting one of how an actor is able to tower over his contemporaries, just on the strength of his willingness to take risks, even experiment.
Here's the latest from Siddiqui's stable. In a big shift from his 'art-house-films-only' image, he's ready to shock you in his forthcoming film, Haraamkhor, where he plays a teacher who falls in love with his student.He throws more light on his role: "When Shlok (Sharma) met me first for Haraamkhor, he didn't have the script ready. But I was thrilled with his idea. It was simple, yet it had the potential of cutting across various segments of the society. It was as simple as night and day, yet it was about a truth that has been brushed under the carpet. The subject it deals with, the emotions it displays are very universal. I am sure everybody will be able to relate to it."
He continues: “Shlok has his own way with actors. He keenly observes, figures out the strength of each actor, and handles them accordingly. Rather than expecting the actors to adapt, he adapts himself to extract what he wants out of each one of us. He knows the essence and as long as we got that to the table, we had all the freedom to do what we wanted.”
Without doubt a tough role to pull off, how difficult was it to do with a absolute newcomer? “Shweta Tripathi is a very successful theatre actor. As actors, it is very important for us to have somebody reciprocating our performances from the other end. One can take the scene to any levels with her.” Tripathi agrees, and adds: “Very few people get to work with their favourites in their first film. I am fortunate to be one of them.”
{{/usCountry}}Without doubt a tough role to pull off, how difficult was it to do with a absolute newcomer? “Shweta Tripathi is a very successful theatre actor. As actors, it is very important for us to have somebody reciprocating our performances from the other end. One can take the scene to any levels with her.” Tripathi agrees, and adds: “Very few people get to work with their favourites in their first film. I am fortunate to be one of them.”
{{/usCountry}}Even Shlok says he is "naturally nervous" about helming his first full-length feature film, that too with a actor of Siddiqui's calibre. Says he: “I always knew that Haraamkhor's Shyam is Nawaz bhai. I was extremely nervous and skeptical before approaching him as I was worried about under-utilising a powerhouse of talent like him. What if I am not able to do justice to his latent talent? I would even keep repeating the same to him throughout the shoot. Even when he finally saw the film and stepped out, he hardly spoke and headed home. I was, of course, nervous as hell. I sort of felt it was the end of my career. And then in the night, at around 3.30 am or something, I got a text from him saying that he loved every bit of the film.”
(The author tweets from Twitter/@nawabjha)
Also read:Nawazuddin Siddiqui's new look in Haraamkhor will shock you
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