Who doesn’t know Nawazuddin Siddiqui? The actor is popular throughout India for his acting prowess, which is nothing less than an interesting rags to riches tale. He never looked back after the towering success of ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, and proved his capability with memorable performances in films like ‘The Lunchbox’, ‘Badlapur’, ‘Manjhi – the Mountain Man’, ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’, ‘Mom’ etc.
However, a recent statement given by Nawazuddin Siddiqui would force many to think otherwise, since it exposes a different facet of his personality altogether. In an interview given to Pinkvilla, he revealed his thoughts about the reaction of the audience to the second season of ‘Sacred Games’. He said, “Who are these people? I only take criticism from people who are of my standard. Today, every second person is there to criticize. Yes, I know the show got a little boring but these people criticizing, do they have knowledge of cinema? I can take criticism when the person has equal or more knowledge of cinema. Won’t listen to any ‘aira gaira nathu khaira’. Anyone criticises today, I am a trained actor, I do not take criticism from anyone.”
Mr. Nawazuddin, it is not a crime to be frank, but that doesn’t mean that an unapologetic personality gives free passage to arrogance. Even if we put aside the extreme Hinduphobia in the series, the second edition of Sacred Games is not only bad in comparison to the previous season, but also unpalatable and vicious to be precise. This edition has no creativity, no great dialogues, and no memorable scenes. Even Saif Ali Khan, who played a pivotal role in this series, has admitted that the second season has let the audience down. To quote the actor himself, “Many people said that they loved the first season, but felt that we lost the plot with the [track of] Guruji [Pankaj Tripathi’s character]. The open-ended climax didn’t go down well with the audience, although I liked it.”
Perhaps Nawazuddin has forgotten that is the same public, who can make a Shivaji Rao Gaekwad into Super Star Rajinikanth, and bring down a Jugal Hansraj to his knees. As such, the arrogance displayed by him is not cool. If the public makes up their mind, you can fall down to the pits from the heights of glory, and what better example to tell than the case of Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. Both had labeled India as ‘intolerant’ without a proper research or analysis, and the rest as they say, is history.
Even Swara Bhasker, basking high in the glory of the partially successful ‘Veere Di Wedding’, was given a solid reality check by the voters during the Lok Sabha elections. Whoever she supported lost by a significant margin, if not having the misfortune to lose the security deposit as well. Excessive pride destroyed Ravan as well Duryodhan, so how does Nawazuddin think that he will spared for his arrogant views?