Nawazuddin Siddiqui is my go-to actor: ‘Costao’ director Sejal Shah

Filmmaker Sejal Shah says she knew only an actor with a calibre like Nawazuddin Siddiqui would be able to pull off the complex role of former customs officer Costao Fernandes in her directorial debut “Costao”.

What made her even more confident in her choice was that she and Siddiqui had already collaborated on the 2020 film “Serious Men”, on which Shah served as a producer.

In “Costao”, the 50-year-old actor plays a fearless customs officer named Costao Fernandes, who took on gold smugglers and corruption despite personal setbacks. It is streaming on ZEE5.

“I was very clear that I always wanted to cast Nawaz for ‘Costao’ because I knew that only he would be able to pull off a role like this. There are different shades to this character and I was already working with him on ‘Serious Men’. We went to him and by the time the script got ready, we got the dates.

“He is like my go-actor. I love Nawaz, I wish I could keep working with him. The big problem working with Nawaz is that he spoils you so much that you want to keep working with him all the time. He is such a fantastic actor and he elevates the script, he completely surrenders to it, which is a very big thing for such an experienced actor to do,” Shah said.

The filmmaker said Siddiqui is a performer who has a lot of respect for the director’s vision.

“I’m a new director, so many times it happens that there are so many scenes where we are discussing and then he just tells me that ‘This is what I feel, ultimately the call is yours’. He’s one of those actors who is so committed to his craft,” she said.

Shah, who has backed web series such as “Asur” and “Decoupled”, said she spent around three years doing research for the film which involved interactions with the real-life Costao, his family, and several customs officers.

Convincing Costao for the biopic was not an easy feat, said the filmmaker, adding it took her nearly a year to get him on board.

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“Costao had been chased since 1990. Many people had come to him. He is such an honest person that he didn’t want me to lie about certain things, he never said ‘Let’s not show the family what happened and how his relationship with his family changed and what happened after that incident’.

“He was very open to me and said ‘Let us speak the truth, whether people accept it or not as that is the harsh reality of life’. The idea was to stay close to the truth and that is why it’s not a whitewashed biopic. We have stayed as true as possible because Costao is such a person that he demands the same honesty and truth from all of us,” she added.

Shah said she has already begun working on her upcoming projects: one is a thriller, the other is an action-romance film.

“I’m looking to direct these films. We are finishing the script and then we will start the casting process.”

“Costao” also stars Priya Bapat, Kishore Kumar G, Gagan Dev Riar and Hussain Dalal.