Its not new information that Nawaz Siddiqui was belittled for his looks and dark skin when he was starting his Bollywood career. The actor who has played iconic roles like in Gangs of Wasseypur had to struggle really hard to finally get good roles.

He opened up his vulnerable side during a podcast with Raj Shamani, where he talked about how his looks actually helped him to work harder to hone his craft.

During the conversation, Nawaz, in his jolly, witty nature, said that he and his friends had plenty of time during their NSD tenure, as they were not able to forge friendships with the opposite sex. Nawaz opines that it was because of his tall, lanky frame and dark skin that didn’t attract the women towards them. This allowed them to spend all their time practising and honing their craft.

Nawaz even opined that the better-looking guys in the NSD were habitual of spending much of their time with their female friends, which didn’t allow them to hone their craft. He claims that due to this, they didn’t gain the visibility and the level of success that they should have.

“I faced a lot of rejections but I got used to it. So I don’t have that much experience of it (of being romantic). I think somewhere down the line, it actually helped me. When we were in NSD, there we were 4 – 5 friends who didn’t had female friends. And we all used to look the same. Those who were good-looking, they were able to forge friendships with the females. That actually helped us because we would then do a lot of study and practise.”

“Those who had female friends, they would spend a lot of their time in chit-chats. That is the time when destiny can take its shape. We used to rehearse for 2 – 3 plays in a single day because we had so much time. Those who were busy in female friendships, they didn’t had ample time to practice so they used to rehearse for only 1 play.”

“Those who spent those times in female friendships, I am sorry to say but they didn’t get the success that they could have got. They were good actors. People like us, our skills got refined because of immense practice and that eventually got us a lot of work.”
— Nawazuddin Siddiqui during the podcast with Raj Shamani

Conclusion

Luckily, as a society, we are now much more forgiving about looks than in the past. Today, the content and the acting are much more emphasized than the looks alone.

But I truly believe that Nawazuddin wasn’t really a bad-looking actor, as many netizens believe. Looking at Nawaz today, he is ageing like a fine wine. But his revelations about his struggle are a reminder for any aspiring actor that talent alone can get you to places where looks alone won’t.