Manto's character crept under my skin; Asked Nandita to get this dangerous man out of me: Nawazuddin

With a number of commercial hits to his credit, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is undoubtedly, one of the finest actors India has ever produced. He convincingly played Saadat Hasan Manto, a rebellious and controversial author and defied the complexity of the character with his excellent acting.  

Nawazuddin opened up about how Manto’s character crept under his skin and how the actor feared its consequences in an interview with Mid Day. The report quoted the actor as saying, "Manto is like every one of us if left loose to critique the world around. I was relating to everything I performed and somewhere during the film, Manto and I united in spirit. Manto crept under my skin. After the film wrapped up, I called Nandita (the director of Manto) to say, 'get this man out of me, he is dangerous'. He is exhausting to be in this synthetic world we live in. Sachai se society hil jayegi."

 "The beauty of this character is that every method to play him fails. The only formula that worked for me was being brutally honest. I had to bring on the surface everything that society usually forbids me from saying. It's unleashing the unspoken words of one's subconscious mind." Added Nawazuddin.

Nawaz talked about Sacred Games, Netflix first Indian original that got rave reviews and huge critical acclaim. Nawaz was not keen on doing Sacred Games because he was not ready to play a gangster again. It was Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap who convinced him to do it.

“While shooting, I got a sense of what he was building the character of a multi-layered man who wasn't all dark. He was vulnerable, volatile, pragmatic and colourful and very different from Faizal Khan of Gangs of Wasseypur series”, said Nawazuddin.

Siddiqui will be next seen in Thackeray portraying the life of Bal Thackeray, lauded as one of India’s most polarising politicians.