Nawazuddin brings out the storyteller in him

The first day of the 15th edition of Kathakar International Storytellers Festival, at the scenic Sundar Nursery saw performances from UK, Australia and Mongolia.

From Mongolian tales by Baatarjav Erdenetsogt, folktales from Sierra Leone, and Mullah Nasruddin’s anecdotes, to discussions on love for cinema, and art — the first day of the 15th edition of Kathakar International Storytellers Festival, at the scenic Sundar Nursery was quite a spectacle.

The session Kisse Kahaani aur Adakaari, with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and singer Mohit Chauhan, saw discussions on the actor’s early days in the Capital city, and memorable characters that left a mark on him. (Photo: Manish Rajput/HT)

Inaugurated by Kiren Rijiju, union minister of law and justice, the special session Kisse Kahaani aur Adakaari, with singer Mohit Chauhan, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui and moderator Prarthana Gahilote, delved into Nawaz’s early days in Delhi, his pearls of wisdom on everything cinema, to acting. Touching upon the memorable characters he has played that left a mark on him, especially Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016) and Manto (2018), he highlighted the different emotions of how he got into their characters. A few excerpts from the interaction:

The actor spoke about his time at NSD, and doing street plays as means to earn his livelihood. (Photo: Manish Rajput/HT)

‘Dilli ka kissa in GoW’

I took a junior of mine (at National School of Drama) to Shakuntalam, a theatre at Pragati Maidan, to confess [my love] to her. I put my hand on hers, and she asked, ‘Yeh kya hai?’ To which I replied, ‘Haath rakha hai’. She countered that it was illegal, at which point I started visualising thana and police. I realised my mistake and told myself that if I ever wanted to do something like that, I would seek permission. This is just the story I recounted during my Gangs of Wasseypur workshop and then it was put in there, but it was actually Dilli ka kissa.

‘5 shows ke liye 50 rupay’

After graduating from NSD, I stayed in Delhi for four more years and did street plays at every corner. It was our way of earning money. Companies would tell us to do their ads. We’d get a van, five people would fit into it with their dholak, and then we used to do street plays to advertise that company’s oil. We used to get Rs.50-50 for five shows.

As part of the discussion, the actor shared that he watched over 300 films in the first lockdown. (Photo: Manish Rajput/HT)

‘First lockdown mein 300 films dekhi, sab bahar ki thi’

Mein sirf alag tarah ka cinema dekhta hun, yeh fact hain. During the first lockdown, I watched 300 films, sab bahar ki thi. Then in the second lockdown, I watched even more films, as cinema and art are cannot be held inside boundaries.

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