Nawazuddin Siddiqui, aka Ganesh Gaitonde, is one of the finest actors Bollywood has ever got. He is one of the actors who will give their 100% to the characters they are playing onscreen. He makes sure that he adds a touch of him in his characters and makes them larger than live onscreen for the audience. He made into the industry with Gangs of Wasseypur series directed by Anurag Kashyap. Later, Nawazuddin Siddiqui moved onto various performance-oriented films like The Lunchbox, Badlapur, Raman Raghav 2.0, Haraamkhor, etc.
Nawaz featured in some commercial movies like Kick, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Raees, Mom, etc. where his fans highly appreciated the actor’s acting skills. Except than being an extraordinary actor that he is, Nawaz is brutally honest with his opinions too, especially when it comes to people criticizing his performance on screen.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui was last seen in Ritesh Batra’s “Photograph” alongside Sanya Malhotra. Even though a section of the fan base has appreciated the innocence of the movie, it was a debacle at the box office. When the actor was asked about the movie’s failure at the box office, he stated that the audience is still not ready to accept movies that narrate real-life stories.
Nawaz expressed his utter disappoint at the failure of the movie because according to him, Photograph was one of the best romantic movies to be released this year. The Scared Games actor believes that the audience still prefers watching the masala potboilers to real life-based movies.
Nawazuddin & Athiya Shetty’s “Mootichoor Chakhnachoor” has been the talk of the town since the announcement. The movie was the talk of the town as Nawaz is typecast as an actor who is perfect for intense, layered & dark shade roles. People found it very hard to look at him in a comedy movie. The movie released on 15th November clashing with Siddharth Malhotra, Tara Sutaria & Ritesh Deshmukh starrer “Marjaavan”.
When he was asked about the reaction of the fans for his portrayal in a rom-com & how he looks at the concept of a hero. Nawaz stated, “I will do my own thing as a hero. I will play a hero the way it suits me. I will not follow anyone because that doesn’t come from within.” The actor mentioned, ‘I have always used my own senses, and I will always do that. Like I am the hero of this film, and I felt it was a great experience to play a light, simple character. In the near future, you will also find me doing films which are out and out romantic films.” Nawaz says that he has started to enjoy playing light & simple characters along with the grey shade & intense ones. He likes to bring his own look & feel to the light characters like no one expects him to.
Talking about his co-star Athiya Shetty who comes from the film background, Nawaz said that she’s a hard-working girl & he had fun shooting with her. He feels that she has done a great job in playing her character in the movie & hopes that she’ll get some good movies to work on after this.
No doubt, Nawazuddin Siddiqui today has become a credible name in the industry. He starred in Netflix originals “Scared Games” as Ganesh Gaitonde, which earned him more popularity. The actor was very much appreciated with the success of the series and especially how rowdy & powerful character’s portrayal. But in the second season of the series, it failed to impress the audience.
When the actor was asked about his character as Ganesh Gaitonde on Netflix Originals “Sacred Games 2”, the actor took a dig at the audience for expecting his character to show the same growth as in Season 1. Nawaz was very out front when he pointed out the fact that the audience is hypocritical when it comes to vulgar comedies but point out his abuses delivered under a role.
He said, “Maybe they wanted the swag like of season 1. It may have got boring at some points too. But I was an actor and did as much as I could. Nawaz sounded straight forward with his view on people criticizing his performance. He mentions, ‘I take criticism only from the people who are of my standard and have the knowledge of cinema. I being a trained actor, can’t take the criticism of every Tom, Dick, and Harry who sit behind their social media.’ (Hmm fair point we think)
The actor confessed that he is extremely saddened by the fact that the second part of the series failed to impress the audience. The actor made sure that he comes out and let everyone know that he’s not here to take criticism from the people who don’t know anything about acting.
He admitted that Gaitonde is too negative & dark character. He stated that he would not play the role anymore, shattering the hopes of a third season.
Scared Games 2 featured, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Saif Ali Khan, Pankaj Tripathi, Kalki Koechlin & Ranvir Shorey in the lead roles. Anurag Kashyap & Neeraj Ghaywan directed the second season while Anurag Kashyap & Vikram Motwane directed the first season. The first season featured Netflix’s favourite Radhika Apte & Kubbra Sait.
The actor spoke about the stereotyped Bollywood movies’ plotline. Nawaz called out on the critically acclaimed actors (without taking any names) and stated that the current trend of ‘socially relevant’ movies in the industry is a means of “propaganda”. The plot might be relevant but are peppered with usual tropes.
The actor stated, “People call it content (cinema) but the recipe is the same as that of hit Bollywood commercial film, which is five songs, dance, item number. So how can one call them content-driven? “
The actor believes that to keep getting work, it is essential for an artist to have a commercial standing in the industry. Nawaz stated that ‘I am doing a lot of commercial films today and that is because I have a market value. The distributors know it very well, they know the market value of an actor, and they know why a film is a hit or flop.’
The actor shared his view or idea about independent films not making commercial gains. He clearly mentions that the mindset of the people has got to change.
“Today small films do not flop, as they have alternate platforms like digital. The disaster happens when a big-budget film fails, the hero of that film falls down. We don’t. While our films, after releasing in theatres when it goes on OTT it recovers the money easily.” (So can we say that movies are making more money on the OTT platform than in theatres?)
Last month, Gangs of Wasseypur actor was awarded Golden Dragon Award at Cardiff International Film Festival in the UK. He was awarded for his excellence in cinema in the global arena.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui will feature in Tannishtha Chatterjee’s directorial debut movie “Roam Rome Mein”. The movie is a family drama starring the actor in the lead. The movie was screen at the JIO MAMI Film Festival that was recently held in Mumbai.
Did you like Scared Games 2? Let us know!