MUMBAI: When Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui walks the red carpet at Cannes he may take a moment to ponder just how far he has come and where he is headed.
In just over a decade, Siddiqui has gone from a struggling bit-part actor worried about finding food to an acclaimed international star coveted by directors for his versatility across all genres.
“When your film gets selected in a good category, you feel confident that you are on the right track and your choice of films is good,” Siddiqui said in an interview.
His latest film sees him play the lead role in “Manto,” a biopic about the troubled life of Indian-Pakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto.
The movie, directed by Nandita Das, has been selected for the Un Certain Regard category of the film festival which opens Tuesday.
“I enjoy Cannes because it is such a big and prestigious platform. It’s a whole world revolving around films,” said Siddiqui.
Manto (1912-1955) is considered to be one of the Indian subcontinent’s greatest ever short story writers.
He was lauded for being bold and progressive and a proponent of free speech, writing truthfully about the brutal violence that followed the partition of British India.
To others he was a subversive troublemaker whose stories featuring pimps and prostitutes broke too many taboos. Manto was charged with obscenity a total of six times by authorities in colonial and independent India.
He died from organ failure caused by excessive alcohol consumption aged just 42.
“Manto was an honest man who wrote what he saw. He was transparent and there was no hypocrisy in his life,” said Siddiqui, who is 43.
“He thought about things in the 1940s which we fail to see or think about even today. He spoke and wrote the truth, and truth never gets old. To play him you have to be truthful too,” he added.
Siddiqui is one of Hindi cinema’s great success stories — a poor man, who from humble beginnings in a village in Uttar Pradesh state, defied the odds to make it big in Bollywood after moving to Mumbai in 2000.
By his own admission the chances were stacked against him: “I’m a five-foot six-inch, dark, ordinary-looking man. People didn’t imagine I would make it,” he said in 2015.
But after years of playing small parts Siddiqui achieved his breakthrough in 2012 with “Talaash,” “Gangs of Wasseypur,” “Miss Lovely” and “Bajrangi Bhaijaan.” He has not looked back.
“I spent 10-12 years struggling. My lowest point was to find food and survive. Now I can do the work according to my choices,” he said at his office, a collection of posters from his biggest hits hanging on a wall behind him.
Siddiqui has held his own with superstars like Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan and also successfully crossed over into Hollywood, appearing in the 2016 hit “Lion.”
He is considered to be one of the few actors who can straddle both commercial Bollywood and independent film genres, putting him in high demand.
After “Manto,” Siddiqui will be seen in the Netflix adaptation of Vikram Chandra’s novel “Sacred Games.” It releases on July 6 and will be the site’s first original Indian series.
He is currently shooting for what he describes as his “most difficult” character yet — divisive Mumbai politician Bal Thackeray, who died in 2012.
Thackeray founded and led the Hindu far-right Shiv Sena party, which has campaigned against Muslims and sought to bar migrant “outsiders” from Mumbai. Siddiqui is both.
“Credit goes to the family and the producer who must have realized I could do justice to this complex and difficult role,” he said.
Siddiqui will be in Cannes from May 13-15 before returning to India to finish shooting “Thackeray” which releases in January 2019.
He has become a fixture on la Croisette since debuting with “Gangs of Wasseypur” (2012), walking the red carpet more than half a dozen times.
“The Lunchbox” was screened there in 2013 while “Raman Raghav” followed in 2016.
A suit that Siddiqui had made by an Indian tailor for his first visit has been a feature of all of his appearances.
This time, however, he is ditching it for a stylish tuxedo fashioned by one of India’s top designers — symbolic perhaps of how far he has come.
“The suit has its own story. But there should be change. We can’t hold onto the past,” said Siddiqui.
Bollywood star Siddiqui takes ‘free speech’ hero to Cannes
Bollywood star Siddiqui takes ‘free speech’ hero to Cannes
- His latest film sees him play the lead role in “Manto,” a biopic about the troubled life of Indian-Pakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto
- Nawazuddin Siddiqui is one of Hindi cinema’s great success stories — a poor man who defied the odds to make it big in Bollywood after moving to Mumbai
Hamza Hawsawi on headlining The Fridge in Riyadh
DUBAI: Saudi R&B artist Hamza Hawsawi headlined The Fridge’s “Concert Series KSA Season 1” over the weekend, performing a show in Riyadh’s JAX District as part of a two-day program spotlighting emerging talent.
Hawsawi’s performance followed “The Fridge Open Mic,” which took place at the same venue the night before. The open mic offered rising artists a professional stage to perform original material in front of a live audience, creating space for experimentation and discovery within the local music scene.
Speaking during the event, Hawsawi highlighted the importance of platforms such as open mics for artists. “I think it is important because an open mic is an opportunity to get to know new artists,” he said. “For industry professionals, like Fridge, it is an eye-opener to the scene, and it lets you understand how the scene is going, what kind of artists you’re gonna be dealing with in the future.”
From an artist’s standpoint, he added, the format remains essential for growth. “We do need open mics. We do need to be out there and to try different things, and to sing to different people, and to test our art and find out if people are gonna gravitate towards it or not.”
Hawsawi has spent more than 15 years developing a sound rooted in R&B, soul and pop, building an audience that now spans the region and beyond. He has accumulated more than 33 million global views and collaborated with a range of regional and international artists.
His track “Million Miles” was selected as the official Rally Dakar anthem, while his live performances have included stages such as MDLBeast and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Asked whether he feels a responsibility to help shape the Saudi R&B scene, Hawsawi described a fluid relationship with that role. “Sometimes I feel that sense of responsibility,” he said. “Other times I feel like I’m just a human being trying to express my feelings … But we’re just artists at the end of the day.”
He added that while he sometimes embraces being a beacon for the genre, “other times I feel like I want to be low-key, and I don’t even want to be seen or heard.”
Hawsawi also reflected on one of his personal challenges as an artist in the Kingdom: writing and performing primarily in English.
“That has been the biggest challenge to face,” he said.
While Arabic remains the most widely spoken language in Saudi Arabia, Hawsawi explained that English allows him to express what he feels more clearly, particularly when it comes to emotion and meaning.
“The nuances of what I feel and all the metaphors for me trying to say something but not saying it, you know, not a lot of people get that,” he said, noting that his work often reaches a niche audience. “But I’m happy with that.”
