Nawazuddin Siddiqui accepts he has difficulty with English, but can have hours-long conversations with foreign women: ‘They don’t judge’

In the past, Nawaz has said that even though his English isn’t as fluent as others’, he still has a better understanding of foreign-language cinema than most. “I may not always understand what they’re saying, but I believe I understand the movies way better than most people who understand and speak English,” he said on IMDb’s The Insider’s Watchlist.

More recently, at the Times Now Navbharat India Economic Conclave last year, he mocked English-speaking actors for attempting Hindi-language films. “They are making gangster shows, but casting English-speaking actors in them, even the directors and assistants are speaking in English while making Hindi films. It affects the performance,” he said.

Kangana Ranaut, the producer of Nawaz’s upcoming film Tiku Weds Sheru, has also spoken about how ostracised she felt because she didn’t speak English fluently when she first joined the film industry. “I do not find anything embarrassing about my born existence. People tried to shame me, coming from small town, not being able to speak English, not being able to dress up properly,” she told PTI some years ago.