Nawazuddin Siddiqui recalls being roughed up on set: ‘They dragged me by the collar’

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui looked back on how he was sometimes treated on film sets when he was a nobody.

New Delhi | Updated: June 4, 2023 09:12 AM IST

3 min read

Nawazuddin Siddiqui was last seen in the film Jogira Sara Ra Ra. (Photo: Nawazuddin Siddiqui/Instagram)

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Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui said that he was often disrespected by film crews and producers when he was doing small roles in whatever projects that he could bag. Nawazuddin struggled for several years in the film industry before breaking out in a big way with Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur: Part II. In an interview, he said that he still remains unpaid for the work that he did on several films back in the day.

He also recalled when he was roughed up on set, for wanting to eat with the top-billed actors. He said that he was fuelled by ego at that time, and couldn’t take the disrespect. Asked if people would misbehave with him when he wasn’t as well-known as he is now, he told BBC Hindi, “Of course, thousands of times. Sometimes on set, I would ask the spot boy for water, and he’d completely ignore me. Then you’d have to get it yourself. A lot of productions here segregate the cast and crew during meal times. Junior artists eat separately, the supporting artists have their own space, and the main leads are also separated.”

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He continued, “On some productions, and I have to credit Yash Raj Films for also doing this, everybody eats together. But a lot of production houses make divisions. I would often try to eat where the main leads were eating, but I’d be dragged out by the collar. I was ego-driven, and I would get angry; I thought actors should be given more respect. And sometimes they’d let me through.”

He also recalled that he never got paid for working on the Fardeen Khan and Suniel Shetty-starrer film Jungle, directed by Ram Gopal Varma. So, he’d go to the production house and eat heavy meals for two or three months. He previously made a similar statement about not getting paid for his work on Shool. “That evened things out,” he said with a laugh. The actor was last seen in the romantic comedy Jogira Sara Ra Ra.

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