Mumbai: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, one of the Hindi film industry’s most compelling talents, has once again called out Bollywood’s ingrained prejudices regarding an actor’s physical appearance.
In a candid conversation with ‘Mid-day’, the “Haddi” actor lamented how Bollywood continues to differentiate between actors based on appearance rather than pure skill. Sharing his two cents on the matter, the Siddiqui stated that internationally, they don’t differentiate between actors based on their looks as they just cast a good actor. “Here, we have categories like actor, hero, star, superstar,” he stated adding that Bollywood has great actors but they’re spotted doing smaller roles in movies and web shows.
Despite delivering a series of masterful performances in films such as “Gangs of Wasseypur”, “Manto” and “Raman Raghav 2.0”, Siddiqui admitted to often encountering discrimination based on industry stereotypes, according to a report by Pinkvilla.
He asserted that many exceptional artists are relegated to supporting roles in both mainstream films and digital series – not because they lack capability, but because they defy the industry’s narrow aesthetic ideals. “And maybe no one ever will. We will be gone one day, but this will go on,” the actor expressed. Giving the example of stars like Irrfan Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, and Naseeruddin Shah, the Mom actor opined that the problem is that none of these great actors ever made a film that’s worth Rs 20-30 crore.
Siddiqui also criticised the industry’s reliance on grooming stereotypical ‘heroes’, questioning the quality of contemporary releases. , “But those whom you are trusting, what are they doing? We are seeing what’s happening to the films that are coming nowadays with new actors.”
On the work front, Nawazuddin Siddiqui will be next seen in the biographical crime drama film, “Costao”. Directed by Sejal Shah, it is set to release on May 1, 2025, on Zee5.
