Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui recently hinted at racism in Bollywood. The Munna Michael actor on Monday tweeted: "Thank you for making me realise that I cannot be paired with the fair and handsome because I am dark and not good looking, but I never focus on that." During an exclusive chat with Indianexpress.com, the actor said, "Someone told me something. I don't wanna take his name. At that point of time I had a thought so I shared it. " The actor refused to take any names. On asking him if this is something he regularly faces in Bollywood, he replied it's something he has been hearing from his hometown. "I have always been hearing stuff like why are you going to Bollywood. Shakal dekhlo. Your not a fair and handsome boy. This is something I faced ever since I aspired to become an actor," said Nawazuddin Siddiqui. "I used to go to office and there people asked me why are you here. I used to say I'm an actor. They looked at me from head to toe and say 'Tu actor hai? Shakal se nahi lagta' ( you are an actor but you don't look like one)" Tiger Shroff, who was also present during the interview, added,"But let me tell you Nawazuddin sir has more female fans than me. My fans are mainly kids. Whenever we go somewhere, women go gaga over him." Nawazuddin further added, "They used to tell me I'm not a hero material. My question is what is a hero material. Honestly, It's been 12 years and still I don't know what do you mean by the term hero material?" Nawazuddin Siddiqui has shared the screen with biggest stars of Bollywood like Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan. In each of these films (Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Talaash and Raees), he managed to outshine the superstars yet he refused to compare himself with other stars. "It's wrong to compare you shouldn't do that at all. Every actor has something unique within them. This is unfair. Kehete hai baghiche main Tara Tara ki ful hotey hai. So you see." The actor, who is active on social media, shared his opinion on the platform too. "Nowadays on social media people particularly criticise those who have achieved something in life. The ones who just sit and bash each other on social media, they are not achievers. Woh makkar hotey hai. The ones who can't achieve anything in life they only know how to throw stones at someone else. Since social media allows you to write anything about someone else, people just take undue advantage. They never use this opportunity to write something nice and share something nice about one another. But I believe when you write or talk negatively about someone else that relefects more about you than the achiever. Because a successful achiever really doesn't have time for stuff like these." It's been 12 years and Nawazuddin Siddiqui who started his career by hiding in plain sight in popular Bollywood films has now turned out to be a different kind of hero. Yet there's no end to all the racist remarks. On asking him how he manages to handle so much hate, the actor said, "Yes I have heard a lot of racist remarks like this but of course I'm not gonna go and take revenge on them for that. I really don't have so much time to do that". On the work front, Nawazuddin recently shared the screen with Sridevi in Mom. He will soon be seen in Munna Michael, Babumoshai Bandookbaaz and Manto.
