Before achieving recognition in the mainstream cinema, Nawazuddin Siddiqui was a struggling actor. He had his share of ups and downs in the initial stage of his career in the film industry. It took him more than a decade to cement his position as a renowned actor.
Nawazuddin plays a struggling actor in Aditya Kripalani’s upcoming movie Main Actor Nahi Hoon (I’m Not An Actor). He essays the role of a banker and an aspiring actor who becomes an acting coach to a woman (Chitrangada Satarpura) in Mumbai over FaceTime.
In an interview with SCREEN, when the actor was asked if playing a struggling actor is easy or tough, he said it's very easy because according to him the strugglin"phase was very long". Siddiqui revealed he was a struggling actor for 12-15 years and is still struggling, but in different ways. "But yes, when you have first-hand experience, it becomes quite easy to play a character," he added.
Kripalani said that from the very first day, Nawaz's "pitch as a bad actor was just perfect" and "it's wasn’t too dramatic or fake."
"The acting seemed naturally bad. That’s the best compliment I can give (laughs)," he added.
One of the challenges the actors and the filmmaker faced was that the film was fully shot in real time over FaceTime across 28 days.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui was in Germany, while his co-star Chitrangada Satarpura was in Mumbai. Kripalani revealed Nawaz was in Germany in 2 degrees, and he was in quite a bad shape and the environment impacts one's performance a lot.
The Gangs of Wasseypur actor also said that he couldn’t even pronounce the ‘r’ when he had to say English words. "Also, I had to narrate chunky Shakespeare dialogues in English. Even though I have done Shakespeare plays in Hindi in the past, the English words would just not come out right because of the cold," Siddiqui added.
