Some of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s most popular and acclaimed works include Black Friday (2007), Gangs Of Wasseypur – Part 2, Kahaani, Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (all 2012), Badlapur (2015), Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016) and Sacred Games. The common link between these projects is their genre, that of crime thriller. Though he has proved his versatility with his choices, the aforementioned crime-based projects have propelled him to national and international fame.
In an exclusive interaction with News18, Siddiqui reveals that he has always been fascinated with crime novels and films. He says, “If you go back to the 16th century, you will see that crime thrillers have made for extremely engaging stories. From filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock to novelist Agatha Christie, all their stories have always been fascinating."
He adds, “Talking about plays, the genres of thriller and crime used to be a hit even in olden times. Even if you look at Shakespeare’s plays, they had elements of thrill and would evoke emotions of intrigue in the audience’s mind. Macbeth and Othello are two examples."
Siddiqui believes that the audience has always had an appetite for the genre and that’s one of the reasons why a lot of filmmakers are making them to this day and are capturing the viewers’ attention. “It is the nature of our brain to generate curiosity when it sees and experiences some things. If you see a thriller film or a show, you want to know the story behind the killer’s motive and the murders they have committed. That’s why I think that thrillers and murder mysteries will never become old-fashioned," he explains.
In fact, the 48-year-old was recently seen turning narrator for a Mirchi Plus audio series titled 1000 Crore Ki Laash, inspired from a real-life crime controversy. Though the experience proved to be a memorable one, he admits that being a part of an audio series is more challenging than acting in a film.
“As compared to films, the limitations are more here because you have to convey everything solely through your voice. As actors, when you play multiple characters in an audio series, you cannot just change your voice because that would appear and sound very clumsy. We have to establish fifteen to twenty characters along with their characteristics, habits, the rhythm of their speech and the way they think using just one voice," elaborates the actor, who also lent his voice to a ten-episode anthology podcast titled Thriller Factory on Audible Suno in 2020.
Talking about his love for storytelling, Siddiqui shares, “While growing up, we would listen to stories on radio and that would be really interesting because we would listen and visualise them at the same time. Our imagination would take us to various places and stay fresh in our minds for days."
He, however, rues the lack of imagination among the social media-obsessed Gen-Z audience. “With audio-visual, like for example Instagram, you surf through many videos and as soon as you shut the app, you tend to forget everything- you saw. Here lies the difference… your imagination becomes stronger through audio stories but the format of audio-visual dumbs it down," he says.
The Serious Men (2020) and Heropanti 2 actor asserts that constant exposure and continuous dependency on the internet has impacted the minds of the young generation as he remarks, “We are looking for cheap entertainment in these times, and I am sorry to say this but I see kids today constantly watching something or the other but if you ask them a question to test their general knowledge like the capital of a country or the name of an important person, they need to Google it. That’s the only way they know because it’s easy."
Wishing for the good old days of storytelling sans visuals to be back, Siddiqui expresses, “It is dangerous as no one wants to imagine anything anymore and exercise or put pressure on their brains. I think in today’s times, one should listen to audio stories to make their imagination shaper and visualise what they hear."
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