Nawazuddin Siddiqui urged audiences and filmmakers to give actors the respect they deserve while they are alive.
Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui recently commented that late actors Irrfan Khan and Om Puri did not get the recognition they deserved during their lifetime. He said that audiences and filmmakers truly appreciated their talent only after their demise.
In an interview to Pinkvilla, Nawazuddin said, “Actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Manoj Bajpayee and Irrfan are great actors of our country. But I am saddened that no one decided to make a big-budget film with them; no one thought about it. Even though people used to go mad to watch them, their cinema never reached the masses.”
The actor said, “We often hear that there are two kinds of actors; one for the masses and one for the industry, but in this case the masses’ actor is not reaching them, and the industry’s actor is visible everywhere.” When asked about his legacy and how he would like to be remembered, Nawazuddin Siddiqui dodged the question, saying, “It doesn’t matter what happens after I am gone.”
He reaffirmed his previous comments about his late co-stars, stressing that it is more important to respect actors when they are still alive. “Often we see that people realise the skill and value of an actor after they are gone; when they were alive you didn’t pay attention, and now you want to appreciate them.
This is a harsh truth, because today people talk about Irrfan bhai, but did any of them make a Rs 25 crore film with him?” You look at the acting of a person like Om Puri; he used to get into character. Nawaz said, “In the film Wolf, he shared a scene with Jack Nicholson and at that moment, it felt like Nicholson was nowhere near him in terms of acting. We don’t give our actors the love and respect they deserve and look how he left us all.”
