On Monday (September 9), a larger crowd was seen in the Mandala Theatre. They were either standing in the queue or conversing, all waiting for Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui and filmmaker Anurag Kashyap. On very short notice, Mandala Theatre organised an interaction session with Siddiqui and Kashyap. The organisers admitted they had no idea such a huge crowd would gather for an event planned with such little notice. This was probably the first time Mandala Theatre had ever seen such a huge crowd on its premises.
The crowd were jostling to get ahead to the main hall of the theatre. Among the crowd, many of them could not enter the main hall of the Mandala Theatre as it got houseful quickly. They had to return without being part of the session. While the main hall could accommodate 170 people, the theatre managed to fit around 250.
Then the moment which everyone was waiting for finally came. As Nawazuddin Siddiqui entered the hall, everyone started to scream and whistle. They were screaming, “Nawaz Bhai,” and “I love you, Nawaz Bhai.”
With a humble smile on his face, he sat down on the couch. Unfortunately, Anurag Kashyap could not make it to the show due to health issues.
As the event was placed in the theatre itself, Siddiqui began his conversation by talking about the theatre.
“It has been 20 years since I have stopped doing theatre so now I don’t miss doing plays,” he says. “I have done 150 plays,” he says.
He says he even does not want to remember the struggle he faced during his theatre days. However, he recalls some of the good days of the National School of Drama.
“We had a bunch of friends and used to watch a lot of plays of our seniors and juniors,” he recalls.
Although he has stopped doing plays he hasn’t stopped watching them. The latest plays he watched were William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and Rough Magic in the UK. He even takes his daughter to watch the play.
Talking about Shambhala
It was Siddiqui’s first time in Nepal, and he found the people to be “amazing.” He took a helicopter ride to Langtang and described the experience as “great,” though he admitted he was scared during the flight.
Both Siddiqui and Kashyap came to Nepal to attend the premiere of Min Bahadur Bham’s film Shambhala, which was held on September 8. So in that regard, Siddiqui also shared his experience of watching Shambala.
“It is an amazing movie, everyone should watch it. It takes a lot of courage to make such a film. The film is so artistic that we should not miss it,” he says. “If you want to be an actor you have to watch an actor-oriented movie and Shambala is one of a kind.”
Appreciating Min Bahadur Bham’s work, he expressed his interest in working with Bham in the future.
Well known for playing the characters of Dashrath Manjhi, Bal Thackeray and Saadat Hasan Manto in the biopic such as Manjhi: The Mountain Man, Thackeray and Manto respectively. He also shared his experience of working on a biopic.
“Doing the role of a real character is difficult. Your acting should not look like mimicry,” says Siddiqui. “ You should also have your interpretation.”
While preparing for the role of Bal Thackeray, Siddiqui practised on the harmonium for over a month to maintain the correct texture of Thackeray’s voice.
The show must go on
The main hall of Mandala Theatre during the session was not just occupied by his fans but there were also a lot of aspiring and emerging actors inside. To all those actors, Siddiqui offered some advice: “Keep on trying, you must motivate yourself and gradually doors will open for you.”
Talking about his motivation to continue acting despite various challenges, he says that he had no other option besides acting.
“I didn’t know how to do anything besides acting. If not in films, I would have been acting in theatre or on the streets,” he says.
Siddiqui also talked about how he gets out of character after the movie is done. He says that it’s not easy for him to get out of the character.
“We are not computers that can be turned on or off by pressing a button, so, normally, getting out of character is difficult. Things get better over time. Sometimes, getting scolded by people can also help in transitioning out of movie characters,” he says with a laugh.
Further, he says, that the actors are also affected by a lot of personal issues but actors have to manage to overcome all such things. Such sacrifices make a person an actor and then they get love from people.
“The show must go on for the sake of the love you earn from people, ” he adds.
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Extracted from an interaction session with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, moderated by Yangesh at Mandala Theatre.
