I’m not unconventional looking, most Indians look like me, says Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui says he enjoys the ability to merge with the crowd but that has also led to some funny situations like being stopped from entering the set of his own films.

Siddiqui said in the initial years, whenever he would approach people for auditions, they would tell him that he didn’t look like an actor.

“I would get angry. You go to someone’s office and introduce yourself as an actor and they would ask ‘Who are you?’. I would say I am an actor. They would be like, ‘You don’t look like one’,” Siddiqui said during a session at the second edition of the Cinevesture International Film Festival here on Saturday.

The actor said as someone who came from theatre, he had pages of dialogues from plays like “Andha Yug” and “Tughlaq” memorised and that helped convince people to some extent.

“During interviews, they (journalists) would say, ‘You are unconventional looking’. Bhai, how am I unconventional when crores of people look like me in India. I’m conventional, it’s Hrithik Roshal who looks unconventional,” the actor joked.

Narrating an incident from the set of Reema Kagti’s 2912 film “Talaash”, Siddiqui said he was stopped by the security guard from entering the sets during the shooting of the movie. He was let in only after he convinced the guy that he was an actor in the movie.

“It still happens to me… I’m currently shooting for ‘Raat Akeli Hai part 2’ with Honey Trehan sir. I would be standing behind him and he would be searching for me. I would then say, ‘Sir, I am right behind you’. It is good. I know how to merge in the crowd and I love that. My personality is like that and I take advantage of it,” he added.

Siddiqui said he has not done theatre for a long time and he misses it but it is difficult to go back as it requires discipline but being on stage helped him hone his craft.

Asked about the difference in working on art and commercial films, he said an actor should be adept at every form.

“We used to do that in the theatre as well. Sometimes we would do Parsi theatre and sometimes plays by Shakespeare and Mohan Rakesh, folk and traditional plays.

“But yes, there are some special films — the so-called art films, though I don’t agree with the term because there are only good or bad films – they have a certain depth and an actor enjoys working on them…

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“Some people think that a film should have five songs and stuff like that. But actors like films that challenge them.”

Siddiqui said he recently saw Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix winning film “All We Imagine As Light”.

“If you ask common people they would not go and watch it because they are used to thinking that they don’t need to apply their brain. There is an old saying, ‘Deemag ghar pe rakh ke aana hai’. Why should you?

“It was not seen by a lot of people but our country is being recognized through that film…. I enjoy watching such films and working on them because it helps you evolve… I will keep doing that to progress.”