Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui said he doesn’t care about money, but admitted that the only reason he works in South Indian industries is that they pay well.
In an interview, the actor admitted that he is ‘cheating’ in his performances in these South films, as he does not have complete control over his characters, and he needs someone to explain his lines before filming, because the money is so good, he chose to participate.
In conversation with Filmfare, Nawaz was asked about his move to the 8South, where he has worked in films starring Rajinikanth and Venkatesh. Admitting that he experiences a ‘lack of control’ on these performances, he said, “When I am doing something like Raman Raghav, I am in control of my emotions, my thoughts, my soul.When I do South films, I am not so sure. But since I’m being paid so well, I go ahead with it. I feel guilty. Itna sara paisa de diya lekin samjh nahi aa raha kya kar rahe hain (They are paying me so well, but I don’t know what is happening).”
Nawaz said that ‘cheating is the right word’ to describe what he does in those films. “The viewer may not know, but I know. It’s like doing an advertisement. I don’t have any feelings for that product, all I can see is how much money I’m being paid for it,” he said. But in the same interview, Nawaz claimed that he became an actor not for the money, but for the love of the craft.
“There is a sugar factory in our village name as Budhana. If I had stayed there, I could have earned the same amount of money,” he said, explaining why he doesn’t do theater anymore. He said that he had lost the desire to perform on stage because he had long struggled to find it in films, and that working in theater would eliminate the possibility for him to hold any other job at the same time. Nawaz was recently seen in ZEE5’s film Rauthu Ka Raaz. In South, he has done films like Saindhaav and Petta.