Nawazuddin Siddiqui born 19 May 1974, is an Indian
actor, known
for his works in Hindi cinema. An
alumnus of the National School of Drama.
He started getting roles in Independent films; these were the films which gave him
and Indian
Cinema
recognition internationally, most of his Independent films have
received critical acclaim at
International Films Festivals like the prestigious Academy
Award, Cannes Film Festival, Berlin
Film
Festival, Busan Film Festival, Tribeca Film
Festival, Asia Pacific Screen Awards and many more.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui appeared
in four major & important cinemas, earning the title of
Breakthrough
Talent at the
2012 GQ Men of the Year Awards. Siddiqui’s feature film debut was alongside
director
Prashant Bhargava in Patang (2012), which premiered at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival
and for
which
Nawazuddin Siddiqui was presented with the famous THUMBSUP
TROPHY by the great cinema critic Mr.
Roger Ebert himself. He also gained a series
of International recognitions for his work
alongside
director Anurag Kashyap in Black
Friday (2007), the Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) duology and Raman
Raghav 2.0.
Siddiqui is best known for his roles in The Lunchbox (2013), which premiered as
part of the
International Critics' Week at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won
him multiple awards, Manto
(2018), for which his groundbreaking performance
won him Best Actor at the 2018 Asian Pacific
Screen
Awards and Raman Raghav
2.0 for which he won the Fancine Malaga Award in Spain and in Asia
Pacific
Screen Awards both in the category of Best Actor. Inspite of being very busy
with film shoots,
Siddiqui continues to take time out to do farming in his native
place in Uttar Pradesh (North
India). He is an active motivational speaker,
drawing on his struggles and experiences to
inspire.
He stars in two Emmy
nominated series, Sacred Games (2019), a two-season Netflix original
series for
which he was conferred with the GQ – Men of the Year Award 2018 for the
second time and United
Kingdom's McMafia directed by James Watkins.
Recently Nawazuddin Siddiqui was awarded with the
highest honorary, The
Lesley Ho Asian Film Talent Award at the prestigious Singapore
International
Film Festival for his br globally appreciated br series Sacred Games duology.
He made his Bollywood debut in the year 1999, with a small role in the Aamir Khan starrer Sarfarosh.[20] He then appeared in Ram Gopal Varma's Shool (1999), Jungle (2000); and Rajkumar Hirani's Munnabhai MBBS (2003). After moving to Mumbai he tried to get work in television serials, but did not achieve much success.[21][22] He did a short film, The Bypass in 2003, where he appeared with Irrfan Khan. Beyond that between 2002–05, he was largely out of work, and lived in a flat that he shared with four other people, and survived by conducting occasional acting workshops.[21] In 2004, which was one of the worst years of his struggle, he couldn't pay any rent. He asked an NSD senior if he could stay with him. The senior allowed him to share his apartment in Goregaon if he was willing to cook meals for him.
In 2007, Black Friday was a nominee for Best Film (Golden Leopard), In 2009, he appeared in a cameo role in the song "Emotional Atyachar" in the movie Dev D in his role of Rangila, along with his duet partner Rasila (known together as Patna ke Presley). In the same year, he appeared in New York (2009). However, it was his role of a journalist in Anusha Rizvi's Peepli Live (2010), that first got him wide recognition as an actor. In 2012, he appeared in Prashant Bhargava's Patang : The Kite (2012) which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival, for which Siddiqui's performance was praised by film critic Roger Ebert, a role which "transformed his acting style". The film was subsequently released in the U.S. and Canada, and garnered much attention with rave reviews from the New York Times.
Celebrated author Paulo Coelho had recommended Sacred Games to his
twitter followers and
lauded
Nawazuddin's work calling it
He then appeared in Kahaani (2012), in which he played
the archetypal short-tempered intelligence
officer Khan.
Anurag Kashyap's gangster epic Gangs of Wasseypur
followed, which furthered his fame.
He played his first
primary role as Sonu Duggal in Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss
Lovely, which premiered at
the 2012 Cannes Film
Festival, a role Siddiqui describes as his "most real
performance so
far."Siddiqui then followed this up with
the sequel to Gangs of Wasseypur. In 2013, he played
the
lead role in the horror flick Aatma.[34] He appeared
in Aamir Khan's 2012 release Talash. In 2014,
he played
lead antagonist Shiv Gajra, in the blockbuster Kick.
In 2015, Siddiqui's films Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Manjhi -
The Mountain Man were released, and he was
praised
for his roles. Siddiqui received the Special Jury Award at
the 2012 National Film Awards and
the Filmfare Award
for Best Supporting Actor in 2013.
