Nawazuddin Siddiqui was born on 2nd April, 1973. He has been into acting ever since childhood. He could mimic an acquaintance, he had met minutes ago. He is an observant from early childhood days. In early 1980s, when carnivals, folk performances and festivals were the only source of entertainment for the villagers. Nawazuddin admired the performers who could assimilate all the villagers together and make them laugh, cry and dance with them.
Although he always believed that he could do perform much better than them, and when television was introduced in the village. The villagers used to gather around to watch TV. He too wanted people to admire him in the same manner, they admired the artists on TV.
He starved for his desire for acting during his graduations, and that thirst for acting made him come to Delhi to join the National School of Drama (NSD). He was a popular humor artist at NSD, he won appraisals for playing the character of ‘Borkin’ in a play written by Chekov.
His passion for acting was put to test by the Mumbai city as his life came across a lot of struggle and hardships before getting himself a big role in a major film. He started by doing his part in short films, TV and some Bollywood films. He was always looking for a right opportunity to showcase his skills in acting.
His first major breakthrough was Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday in 2007. After that, he played little but notable roles in many important films like New York, Peepli Live, DevD, Paan Singh Tomar and Firaaq. His first major role came in 2012 in Kahaani. In his own words, Kahaani gave him recognition in the industry.
Although, he developed a somewhat with his role of ‘Faisal Khan’ in the 2 part film Gangs of Wasseypur. This Anurag Kashyap film was somewhat based on the storyline of “The Godfather trilogy” and gained cult status among critics and masses. Gangs won the Filmfare Awards for the Best Picture [Critics] Category. It is the most important film of Nawazuddin, which gave him a stardom and respect among fellow film artists.
Nawazuddin is a method actor and selects his roles very carefully. Some of his films that came after Gangs of Wasseypur were Miss Lovely, Chittagong, Talaash and Aatma, in which he played major or lead roles.
