Nawazuddin Siddiqui: Prasoon Joshi is sensible, we can only hope for nice things

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui talks about the change of power in CBFC and how it will affect filmmaking in the coming time.

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui is among those in the film industry who breathed a sigh of relief when adman and lyricist Prasoon Joshi replaced Pahlaj Nihalani as the chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification, last month. During his tenure, Nihalani courted controversies for trying to censor films and refuse certification.

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui feels that realistic films face more trouble with certification.

Hoping that films will now be dealt with in a better way, Nawaz says: “We can hope from Prasoon Joshi that something nice will happen because he is a very sensible and educated man. He knows about cinema, so we hope that the kind of films we make get through,” says Nawazuddin, whose film, Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, was passed with eight cuts. “We are thankful that the flavour of the film was kept intact.”

The actor points out that not all films face trouble with certification. “Films that are commercial and safe [in terms of content], don’t face a problem. But certain films, made by filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, have a lot of reality [in them]. To make their films authentic, these filmmakers make their characters believable. They are the ones to go through trouble.”

Lyricist Prasoon Joshi is the new chairman of CBFC after replacing Pahlaj Nihalani.

Talking of change, there has been a transition in the characters Nawaz is playing now. After hard-hitting roles in films such as Gangs Of Waseeypur, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Raman Raghav 2.0, he took up colourful and stylish characters in Munna Michael and Babumoshai.... And the audience is appreciating this diversity. “The audience also gets bored of the same thing. The internet and globalisation is the reason why they’re possibly liking the content I am doing now.”

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