I get paid well even after a flop: Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Nawazuddin Siddiqui has struggled for a long time to be where he is at the moment. He has done several small roles, one after another for over a decade before he got any recognition. During his struggle days, he has stayed without work for a long period of time, shared a flat with four other people and even had to move in with a senior from college days when he couldn’t afford to pay the rent. But once he got the attention of the audience and filmmakers, he has given his best in all the film and got  good roles one after the other. It started from Vidya Balan-starrer Kahaani (2012) where he played the role of a short-tempered intelligent officer Khan, soon followed Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur and rest, as they say, is history.

These days, Siddiqui is the talk of the town. After all, he has been donning the avatar of the ‘tiger’ Late Balasaheb Thackeray, the founder of Indian political party Shiv Sena, in the latter’s biopic titled Thackeray, releasing this Friday.  

With the career graph going nowhere but up, Siddiqui certainly has learnt to answer all the questions. At a recent media interaction for the movie Thackeray, one saw the many shades of Siddiqui. In a humble tone, he would say ‘Meri koi aukat nai hai (I am no one)’ and immediately add, “lekin, samman ki baat hai toh seena taan ke kehte hain —bade bade sitaro se jyada paisa leta hoon. Mujhe kam mat samjhiye! (But, if it comes to self-respect, I say it with pride that I charge more than some of the big stars… Don’t see me lesser than anyone else!).”

To the actor who sees himself as no-one, has anyone ever tried taking advantage of his humble persona? “Nobody ever takes advantage of me. How can I ever allow anyone to take undue advantage? Main bewkoof hoon kya? (Am I a fool?),” he says and adds that he feels people within the industry are very able and they approach people in accordance with their worth. “Your talent and ability fetch you worth-while roles,” he asserts.

Although Siddqui’s performances have been consistent, his last film Genius tanked badly at the box office. How did it affect his market value? “Let me tell you, even if my films haven’t done well at the box office, my remuneration doesn’t get affected. My fee has increased after each film and it is not me who has demanded for a hike but the producers who have come to me with increased remuneration every time,” he says while again stressing that the industry, he feels, evaluates the worth of the actors well. “It is, therefore, I never bother myself about my market value. At times, my remuneration is huge as compared to big stars. They do not charge as much for that same role,” he adds.

Changing his tone, he further adds, “I do not demand. People come forward and give it to me… I feel happy that even without giving any quotation from my end, they hand over a decent remuneration for the worthwhile character that I play in films.