Will Nawaz be third time lucky with Thackeray?

Versatile actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui has twice before played real-life characters for the same production company Viacom 18 Motion Pictures — Dashrath Manjhi in Mountain Man and Sadddat Haasan Manto in Manto. And both times the films bombed.

This was not because he was anything short of brilliant in both the roles. It is just that Nawaz doesn’t work as a solo hero at the box office. And this awareness is giving Viacom sleepless night.

As the day of reckoning for Thackeray’s biopic approaches, the question on everyone’s minds is whether Nawaz will succeed in pulling off the dynamic and larger-than-life real-life character, this time round.

A source says, “It’s a tough one. We’re aware that for all his brilliance, Nawaz doesn’t work as a solo hero. There’s little that can be done except to hope that the audience would be looking at and embracing the film for Balasaheb and not brood over who’s playing him.” The source says the Shiv Sena who has helmed the film creatively and financially wanted a big star for the role. But they couldn’t get Khan, or even Kumar or Kapoor to play the role. “Nawaz was a compromise option,” says the source. “We hoped that the audience would come to know about Balasaheb’s life and oratory.” For this film, Viacom 18 is not looking at box office numbers. The source adds, “They took-on the project for the Shiv Sena’s sake. Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena has taken all the  decisions regarding the  film’s marketing and release. Viacom is dutifully obeying Raut’s command.”