Nawazuddin Siddiqui

At NSD, I had an amazing experience learning everything from stagecraft to western drama and Shakespeare, Maxim Gorky, Anton Chekov.

I grew fond of acting rather late. And that was because I was not getting any job. I had a few friends in Delhi who were associated with theater. They took me to see some plays in Delhi and Baroda. That led me to believe the I could also act. And it was after that I joined National School of Drama in 1993.

Coming from a small town, I didn't have big dreams. My biggest ambition was to find a job for myself.

If I am comfortable with my co-star, then that always shows in my performances.

Bollywood has always pampered heroes and treated actors as second class citizens. But, of late, it has realised that there has to be space for actors who can connect with people.

Often when I feel I am reaching a saturation point in my performances, I think of coming back to NSD and attending workshops.

I don't want to build any image for myself. I don't want people to say, 'He does only a certain type of role.' I don't want only to be the hero of the story. An actor's weakness is the different roles that he can't do. But I am keen to grab only those roles as I am here to challenge myself.

I was shooting for 'Kahaani' and 'GOW' back to back. I was in a village on work, where a man extended a paper to me. For a minute I thought he wanted another actor's autograph. I looked back and forth, but there was no one. That was quite an experience.

My character should not be ordinary, cliched, and if I feel that it's difficult to do this character, I take up that challenge to get into his character.

My character in the first instalment of 'GOW' was very shy and reserved. It was completely different from 'Kahaani,' where I played a no-nonsense cop. And in the second instalment of 'GOW,' it is again very different.

When I had no money, I would find out which friend had work and money at that point in time and would go and stay with him for a week. All of us theatre guys did that.

Muzaffarnagar is 40 kilometers from my village. So I used to see films if I was able to save money and on special occasions like Eid, Diwali.