Cinema Nawazuddin Siddiqui sees “Kick” as a tool to generate interest in his small, content-driven films Anuj Kumar

Salman Khan returning to the turnstiles every Eid is no longer news but the fact that this week he will be accompanied by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who is fast emerging as the alternative to stars, is making heads turn. Nawaz says it is the change in the treatment of what they used to call art films that has made the commercial players interested in the work of artists like him. Naseeruddin Shah and Amitabh Bachchan never worked together but Salman and Nawaz can. “The boundaries are blurring because the content-rich films are no longer boring and have been able to do decent business,” says Nawaz, who has been noticed for his performance in “Gangs of Wasseypur”, “Lunchbox” and “Miss Lovely”.

Nawaz says producer-director Sajid Nadiadwala, known for his lavish sets, has cast him for a particular reason. “It is the first film of producer Sajid Nadiadwala as a director. So he was extra careful in scripting the characters. He was working on the script for the last two years and told me he had me in mind while writing the grey shades of Shiv. He liked the fact that I could be natural in a dramatic space. So I raised my sur by a notch to fit into the larger-than-life milieu and then did my own thing. Unlike other big-budget star-studded films here each character is well fleshed out.” He reminds us that writer Chetan Bhagat has been roped in to pad up the screenplay. With Salman playing Devil, it seems Sajid is suggesting names don’t matter, but Nawaz is in no mood to reveal more.

Stars are known to be insecure about sharing space with actors but Nawaz found Salman secure. “He let me do my thing because he is secure in his space. Perhaps he understands that it is actors like me that make stars look better,” reflects Nawaz, who is now shooting with Varun Dhawan for Sriram Raghavan’s “Badlapur”. “Young actors like Varun who want to become stars also realise the importance of giving variety to their audience. They are not shying away from challenges that keep actors like me interested in the profession. Over the years I have also realised that budgets don’t make a film good or bad. In the last couple of years we have seen excuses in the name of independent cinema.” Aiming to experiment with his intense image, Nawaz, who will be seen opposite Chitrangada Singh in Kushan Nandy’s comedy, maintains that actors should get as much respect as the stars not just in terms of work but also remuneration. “I don’t want to beg for what I deserve. When I started getting recognition, the moment the producer cast me, he would say the budget of the film is small. Thankfully, the perception is changing,” says Nawaz who wants to become the face of a Rs.25-30 crore film.

“Unfortunately, for actors like me the gears change slowly. You know that I started from parts of a few seconds. So in that sense I have covered a lot of ground in the last decade. During my struggle I was often told that you act well but you are not hero material. I would ask what does it entail and I would get blank faces. It took a long time to get accepted. I had become immune to rejection. When you face rejection on a daily basis even your friends stop listening to your opinion and worries. Now, when people ask me what I think, I chuckle.”

The ability to survive on the bare minimum has given Nawaz the confidence that he won’t fall into the trap of the glamour industry. He understands the perils of being reduced to a support staff in extravaganzas, who are sometimes applauded at popular award functions. “During the struggle I saw many big names coming down from the top for poor sense of judgment in picking films. I am not going to repeat myself to make money. In fact I had told myself that ‘Kahaani’ is going to be my last film in character artist space. But apart from being offered substantial parts the idea to be seen in films like ‘Kick’ is that it helps in generating interest in my content-driven, small films. Today it is easier to make a good film but taking it to the audience requires lots of money. ‘Miss Lovely’ suffered because of this and I am still feeling bad about it because apart from a good film it was my first performance in a lead role,” says Nawaz who will now be seen as “Mountain Man” in Ketan Mehta’s biopic on Dashrath Majhi and Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s “Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa”.

Nawaz holds that Majhi was no less than Salman in a realistic space. “If he could jump the railway tracks and bring down a helicopter while riding on his cycle, in “Mountain Man” I am going to bring down a mountain with ordinary tools. It is as heroic as it gets. That it is based on a real story will give the audience goose bumps. I am not hankering after mainstream masala. I would like to do one or two big budget films in a year but I will not give up on the kind of cinema that has given me my identity in the industry.”