Nawazuddin Siddiqui opened up recently about how actors like Irrfan Khan and Om Puri didn’t receive much recognition during their lifetime and how no one decided to make a big-budget film with them. Nawazuddin said that the worth of actors’ is realised only when they are gone.
During an interview with Pinkvilla, he was asked about his legacy, and he replied, “It doesn’t matter what happens once I am gone. Often we see people realising an actor’s skill and worth after they are gone; you didn’t pay attention when they were alive, and now you want to appreciate them. It is a harsh truth, because today people talk about Irrfan Bhai, but did any one of them make a Rs 25 crore film with him?”
He added, “Actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Manoj Bajpayee and Irrfan are all the greatest actors of our country. But I am saddened by the fact that no one decided to make a big-budget film with them; no one thought of it. Even though people used to go crazy to watch them, their cinema never reached the people. We often hear that there are two kinds of actors; one is for the public and one is for the industry, but in this case the public’s actor is not reaching them, and the industry’s actor is seen everywhere.”
Praising Om Puri’s acting skills, Nawazuddin said, “You look at the performances a person like Om Puri has given; he used to become the character. In the film Wolf, he shared a scene with Jack Nicholson, and in that moment, it seemed as if Nicholson was nowhere near him in terms of acting. We don’t give our actors the love and respect they deserve, and look at the way he left us all.”
Nawazuddin was seen recently in the biographical crime-drama Costao, which released on ZEE5 on May 1.
