“I Was Not Like Manto, Had To Purify Myself”: Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Noted actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui was welcomed with a packed house in the front lawns of Diggi Palace as he arrived to participate in a session at the ZEE Literature Festival themed on his upcoming film which charts the life of Saadat Hasan Manto.

With the crowds going gaga over the Gangs of Wasepur star, loud cheers and whistles resonating in the pristine venue, the organisers had quite a task to put things in order before the session kicked off. And when it finally did, the excitement only grew.

Siddiqui said that he chose Manto for what he stood for.

“He was a big fighter for free speech. Manto had always been true and wrote what he saw around him. The greatest challenge for me was that I was not like him. I am not like Manto. I tell lots of lies. I had to listen to my director and really had to purify myself (I was very polluted) before I began shooting,” he said.

The actor further stressed upon the fact that he was so engrossed in the role of Manto that he “could not think anything else” and was caught in Manto’s state of mind for a long time. Now that the shooting is over, he is trying hard to get out of that frame of mind so that he can focus on other films, films that are not necessarily artistic in their content.