He is almost unrecognizable in his balding hair – protruding teeth transformation for Mom. But then again, Nawazuddin Siddiqui has never shied from going the extra mile to achieve perfection in the characters he plays. The actor keeps adding new feathers to his hat with each unique choice of role. As he gets ready to wow us with another astounding performance, we catch up with Nawaz for a quick chat about his upcoming film.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Nawazuddin Siddiqui

What is the role that you play in Mom?

I play a character who has the solution to every problem. There are too many people who are present in the crowd, but you don’t even look at them because there’s nothing special in their appearance. But when you meet such people, they make you believe in themselves for a moment. They make you believe; that is one part of their personality. 

You hail from Delhi and so does your character. Did that help establish an instant connect?

Since I am from Delhi, I know all the places, and have seen a lot of people. While we were discussing the look, we did a lot of research. I wanted to experiment with my look and so did Ravi (Udyawar, Director). After a lot of hard work, this look was created. It was Ravi who suggested this. It would take us two hours for the look, every day!

On the first day of the shoot, I didn’t know how to perform. I was sitting in the vanity, after the make up was done, and looking at myself. I tried to speak in a lot of tones to see which one would fit the character. A lot of people came to my mind. Finally, Habib Tanvir and Piyush Mishra came to my mind and I tried to create a tone like theirs. It was a perfect fit!

MOM

Nawazuddin’s complete transformation for ‘Mom’

The character needed you to wear prosthetic makeup. Did it get tough at any point? 

We used a bit of prosthetics, and shooting in the hot climate of Delhi and Mumbai was quite tough. But I am happy with the way it has turned out. People are intrigued and I guess that’s exactly what an actor wants.

Working with a veteran actor like Sridevi must have been quite an experience.

It was like a dream come true. She has been my favorite actress from even before I entered films. We’ve grown up watching her films. Her performance is so good! And there’s an entertaining quality in her performance. I always dreamt of working with her but at that point of time, she had stopped working in films. 

Having done so many films, what draws you to a project?

The Director. If you give a good script to a bad director, he’ll mess it up. But if you give an average script to a good director, he’ll make it good. A lot of people say that the script is more important, but for me, a director is more important.