Small films need to be seen: Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Nawazuddin Siddiqui has traveled a long, arduous path and carved a niche for himself in the Indian film industry.

Today it is evident from his body of work, as well as from his response to a question about the role closest to his heart.

“Bombay Talkies has to be the one film that is closest to my heart. The character I was playing in it was a failure. I could connect extremely well with that state of mind,” he says as he settles in for an interview.

“I am very uncomfortable speaking in public, to be honest,” he says adding, “When I was doing theatre and preparing to become an actor, I hadn’t realised that I would need to address people this way as well.

Theatre teaches you acting, not public speaking and had I known that I would be required to do this as well, maybe I wouldn’t have become an actor at all!” How has he been coping with film promotions then, one wonders? He says wryly, “Film promotions are a fad that must be followed.

It’s the best way for your stories to reach more people. In fact, I really hope that someday the smaller films that are made in our industry manage to get adequate promotion as well because there are so many stories being told so beautifully that people should get a chance to see.

Even things like show distributions need to accommodate smaller films better than they do at this point, if we really want to give good films and their makers a chance.”

One such film that also features the actor himself along with Geetanjali Thapa is India’s official entry to the Oscars this year, Liar’s Dice.

“It’s good enough to begin with that the government has chosen a project like ours for the Oscars this year.

Beyond that, the harsh reality is that we really need support, especially during times when we go about organising screenings internationally to give our film the push it needs globally,” he shares and says that he had taken a conscious decision to sign big-budget commercial projects for this year so that his smaller films could have greater support to manage at least an adequate release.

Talking about one of the movies among the latter, Great Indian Circus, he says, “It is the story of a small town and explores the manner in which money allotted to small towns like it by the government actually reaches them. It is a project I’m quite excited about.”

Ask him if he would ever consider a running-around-trees song-and-dance role and he says that he would do it gladly, provided the concept is logical.

“I would love to do a film where my character is a dancer. And if the director gives me logic to explain dancing around a tree in that film, I would do that too,” he says.

The actor will next be seen in Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Shahid Kapur-starrer Farzi among others.