Nawazuddin on Rejection, Fame, Money, Loneliness & Reality of Bollywood | FO429 Raj Shamani
Raj Shamani talks with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Figuring Out, FO429) about rejection, craft and the realities of Bollywood. Nawazuddin describes a village childhood marked by fights and humiliation, a father whose failures left him with deep insecurity, and years of rejection in Mumbai that he says he simply got used to. He argues that lying is routine in the industry - people invent origin stories and, in his view, promotional interviews contain the most lies of all. On craft, he says every new role must be started from zero and that past glory has to be crushed, crediting acting exercises with training him to spot contradiction and dishonesty in performance. He also touches on discrimination over colour and height early in his career, sleeping barely four hours, crying alone at times, and watching only difficult films and great art because, he says, he has no time to waste. All views expressed are the speaker's own recollections and opinions. No sponsor read appears in this episode.
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Raj Shamani talks with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Figuring Out, FO429) about rejection, craft and the realities of Bollywood. Nawazuddin describes a village childhood marked by fights and humiliation, a father whose failures left him with deep insecurity, and years of rejection in Mumbai that he says he simply got used to. He argues that lying is routine in the industry - people invent origin stories and, in his view, promotional interviews contain the most lies of all. On craft, he says every new role must be started from zero and that past glory has to be crushed, crediting acting exercises with training him to spot contradiction and dishonesty in performance. He also touches on discrimination over colour and height early in his career, sleeping barely four hours, crying alone at times, and watching only difficult films and great art because, he says, he has no time to waste. All views expressed are the speaker's own recollections and opinions. No sponsor read appears in this episode.