I don’t want to give the credit of my success to ‘luck’: Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Based on the real life story of a village man, who just with ‘a sickle and a hammer’ broke the whole mountain for the lady he loved, ‘Manjhi’ is directed by Ketan Mehta.

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The whole team of the upcoming movie was in the national capital on Tuesday (August 18) for the promotional activity. Upon being asked whether he gives ‘fortune’ and ‘luck’ any credit for him reaching the stature that he has, Nawazuddin Siddiqui said, “I myself try to figure out sometimes, how ‘luck’ has favoured me all these years, but I am not able to find that out.”

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“Had fortune favoured me, I would be here where I am long before only. So, I don’t want to share my success with ‘luck’. I won’t give the credit to ‘good fortune’. Whatever I have achieved is because of my hard work and passion. I was determined to be an actor and make a name in the industry, and hence, I did. ’25 saal aur bhi lagne hotey toh lag jaatey, peechhey nahin hat ta main. Yeh toh soch rakha thha.'”

“I don’t want to take names, but there are some people who get everything served on a platter. This is a movie, this is your role and you have to do it. Some people have to strive so hard to reach where they have and want to. Also, there is no merit system here. It’s not like, you are intelligent, you’ll get this movie or role,” Nawazuddin added.

So has success changed Nawazuddin the person? “Not at all. This is because I have struggled so much. I have seen people climbing up and down the ladder of success and I learnt a lot from them. I think changes happen when success comes to you really easy and soon,” opines the talented actor.

And has it changed the people around him? “Ofcourse it has. Perception changes. But I think they are right on their part. Before I had achieved anything, why would anybody come to me? Now when they come to me, I do talk to them, listen to their scripts and take up the role if I like,” says he.

Nawazuddin also had a very interesting fact to tell about the movie that brought him to limelight ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’. He reveals, “Sometimes the script just become secondary. If you know that the director has a great vision for the movie and you believe in him, an ordinary script can also turn into something beautiful. Like when we started shooting for ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’, we didn’t have a single written dialogue for the movie. And it happened on the day we began shooting for it.”

Having a dream role of that of Dilip Kumar’s in ‘Mughal-E-Azam’ for the immaculate language he has used in the movie, Nawazuddin Siddiqui also shared a very interesting anecdot wherein he interacted with Dasrath Manjhi’s son and daughter-in-law. He said, “I asked Manjhi’s daughter-in-law how much her husband loves her. She in her colloquial language said, ‘His father broke a whole mountain for his wife, but his son, my husband can’t even take me to a doctor when I am sick.'”

On being asked whether they are planning to organise a screening for the family members, director Ketan Mehta said, “We want to but can’t. The place is so poor. They don’t have electricity, any resources. And after the leak, though its just a rough cut, we are not taking any chances.”

Calling the divide between ‘commercial cinema’ and ‘parallel cinema’ a Berlin War created by the media, Ketan Mehta believes that the audiences are changing and are accepting different kind of movies. “Bringing down the worth of cinema to the zeroes you can add is such a devaluation of the most magnificient art form that have ever existed. India has large enough audience to absorb any kind of cinema,” says the ‘Rang Rasiya’ director.

The story of ‘Man Vs Mountain’ as explained by Ketan Mehta is presented by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and NFDC India and is all set to release this Friday (August 21).