Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who will next be seen in Heropanti 2, has bemoaned the state of Indian films. In an interview, he said that based on the kind of movies that are succeeding at the box office these days, it would appear that the audience’s tastes haven’t evolved in the pandemic.
It is largely believed that due to the on-and-off lockdowns, which resulted in an uptick in streaming content, audiences were exposed to diverse cinema in the last couple of years. Nawaz told Bollywood Hungama that this seems to be a myth.
He said, “Pandemic ke baad 2 saal hum ghar mein rahe toh poore world ka cinema dekha hoga logon ne, toh kuchh salaahiyat aayegi but jis tarah ki pictures abhi hit ho rahi hain toh aisa lagta hai ki salaahiyat gayi tel lene (People were exposed to world cinema in the two years of the pandemic; you’d expect them to have developed an ability to judge content, but considering the kind of films that are becoming hits these days, the ability to judge seems to have gone out of the window).”
This year, films such as RRR, The Kashmir Files and most recently, KGF: Chapter 2 have become massive hits. Last year, it was Pushpa: The Rise and Sooryavanshi that ruled the roost at the box office.
Nawaz, who broke onto the scene with his starring performance in Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 2, has delivered a series of acclaimed performances in films such as Raman Raghav 2.0, Manto, and the Netflix series Sacred Games. He also balances his discerning output with more mainstream films, such as Kick, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and the upcoming Heropanti 2, in which he plays a villain.
He explained his approach to commercial films in a recent interaction with PTI. “There’s a certain presentation of performances in commercial films. That form is entirely different. If you expect to use method acting here, then you’re dumb. This is for fun, the audience of these films comes to enjoy. So, if you sit down to dissect my performances, maybe you’ll find a lot of flaws. But if you take it as pure fun, one would really enjoy,” he said.
