I May Settle Down In  My Home Town: Nawazuddin Siddiqui

“I May Settle Down In  My  Home Town & Work From There,” Nawazuddin Siddiqui  Tells  Subhash K Jha

Nawaz,lately you have been spending a  lot of time in your hometown?

Jee, Sir. Yahan pe  bahot sukoon  hai. The one good thing that the Covid pandemic gave me  was  time  away from the  shor-sharaaba  and  bhaag-daud of  the city. In my  hometown Budhana everything is  quiet, resposeful. I can’t describe to you the  feeling of peace that descends when I come here. You will have  to come  and  experience it yourself.

You have spent a  lot  of time in Budhana?

Yes, since lockdown.Mumbai mein kaam  thapp(standstill) hogaya, toh main ghar aa gaya. Over here  I  thought  I’d  spend some time with my mother and  then return.  But since no work was happening in Mumbai  I stayed on.Dekhte dekhte saal nikal gaya. I realized  how happy I  was  being at home.

Would you consider working  from  Budhana?

Why not? In fact, work-at-home is  the  new normal. As long as  I am not shooting I can do everything  from here, story session,narrations on Zoom.  Even dubbing can be  done from here.

So what are  you ,  a farmer  or an actor?

Actor  by profession, Lekin  dil se  main  kissan  hoon(I am  farmer at heart). I love to be close to the  zameen. I am the happiest when  working on the land.When I am in  Budhana I even sleep on my   farmland.I am the happiest when I am farming.

What about acting?

It is equally important to me. Farming and acting come  naturally to me. Baqi sab dikhawa hai. I’ve signed  quite  a  few interesting projects lately.

What  do you think of  the  rapid  growth of  the  OTT platform in the  last two years?

I  believed in the  OTT platform  from long before. My  Scared Games was  one of  the  first big successes on the Indian  digital  platform. Tabhi main  samjh gaya. This   platform is here to stay. But it can’t replace the cinema bigscreen experience. Both the platforms  have  their individual space.