Nawazuddin Siddiqui reconnects with his roots

shutterstock/Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is currently one of Bollywood’s biggest stars but he came from humble beginnings. Born into a Muslim family in a small town called Budhana, in the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, his father was a farmer.

His grandfather on the other hand, was incredibly wealthy, owning hundreds of acres of land—perhaps he should have read WEALTH Arabia and learned how to preserve his wealth.

“My background is farming—I’m a farmer, I was a farmer,” he tells WEALTH Arabia.

He was born into a family of nine siblings—seven brothers and two sisters. Growing up, it was difficult for him to go to the cinema—the closest cinema was 45 kilomteres away. As a result, he only saw five movies growing up, reenacting the scenes in his head.

When he moves to Mumbai, he worked as a watchmen in an office, before finally breaking into the business that has since readily embraced him.

“I’m always attracted to complex characters,” he says.

After filming Sacred Games, an international mega-hit and Netflix’s first Indian original programming, Siddiqui caught up with WEALTH Arabia about where he travels to detach from playing one of the most vicious gangsters of modern television.

Where does he go? It turns out he goes back to his roots—his home village of Budhana.

“I go to my village and meet my old friends.  I do that. I want to detach what I have done, detach from the role that I take, so when I go, it’s a process of detachment. When I came to Bombay for one month or fifteen days, I feel like I’m another person right now. I feel like I can start another role.”