Nawazuddin Siddiqui

lifestyle WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015 Music & Movies Nawazuddin Siddiqui, farmer’s son turned ‘Hindi indie’ star t is a story worthy of a Bollywood plot: The son of a selected for the Cannes Film Festival, he turned heads in cinema hall to watch his films. north Indian farmer, one of nine children, rising to crime thrillers “Kahaani” (Story) and “Talaash” (Search). He will appear again with Salman Khan in upcoming Ibecome the face of independent Hindi cinema. But He said his family are still surprised by how far he has romantic drama “Bajrangi Bhaijaan”, and with Shah Rukh Nawazuddin Siddiqui is still getting used to his success. come. “And you cannot blame them. I am a five-foot six- Khan in “Raees” (Rich Man), in which he plays a cop who “When someone is looking at me, I feel they are looking inch, dark, ordinary-looking man. People didn’t imagine is chasing Khan’s mafia character. Siddiqui says he at someone standing behind me, not at me,” the 40-year- that I would make it,” he said. “It is the mindset of our admires Bollywood megastars for their longevity- old confessed to AFP during an interview at a Mumbai country too, that people like (me) don’t become stars. ”they’re very well-maintained”-and he wouldn’t rule out hotel. Maybe it’s a result of 200 years of colonial rule.” doing a song-and-dance number himself, despite his “I have not got used to it and I won’t allow myself to Industry outsider reservations about Bollywood musicals. He describes feel like a star.” Winning awards for his roles in interna- Being this “ordinary-looking” outsider to a dynastic them as a “borrowed culture”, not rooted in the Indian tionally-feted films such as “Gangs of Wasseypur” in 2012 industry, Siddiqui struggled to get a designer suit for his tradition of folk music and classical songs and dance. and “The Lunchbox” the following year, Siddiqui has first red carpet appearance at Cannes in 2012. But three “However I would do one such formula film to prove become one of India’s most respected actors. It is a long years later he just has to pick up the phone, and when that I can dance and romance a heroine,” he said. way from his humble beginnings in Uttar Pradesh state, he comes to meet AFP he is accompanied by a manager, Siddiqui is also appearing in his first Hollywood film, where he became the first graduate from his village with a valet and a publicist. Despite his success he says “noth- with two scenes in the upcoming drama “Lion” directed a degree in chemistry. After training at Delhi’s National ing much has changed”. He still hangs out with old by Garth Davis, and starring Nicole Kidman and Dev School of Drama, smitten with acting, he landed his first friends “who remind me of our days of struggle”, and Patel of “Slumdog Millionaire” fame. But he is “not dying” film appearance in the 1999 Aamir Khan movie goes home to help out on the farm. to do more foreign movies. “I am very proud of the films I “Sarfarosh” (Fervour), and moved to Mumbai, the enter- Aside from Talaash and the 2014 action film “Kick” am doing here because they are of an international stan- tainment capital, in 2000. with Salman Khan, he has mostly avoided Bollywood dard,” he said. “I am very confident about my work But he faced years of struggle and bit parts, often blockbusters, tending towards more serious “Hindi indie” because I have worked very hard.” — AFP earning little cash, before he really became established. roles. But his forthcoming features are big budget flicks The year 2012 was perhaps his best to date: along with alongside A-list superstars-much to the delight of his Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui talking in an interview with the Wasseypur gangster epic and “Miss Lovely”, both family, who travel 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the nearest AFP in Mumbai. — AFP Review Emily Blunt joins animated feature ‘Animal Crackers’ dge of Tomorrow’ star Emily Blunt is the lat- est Hollywood name to join the voice cast of ‘E“Animal Crackers,” an independent animated feature backed by Chinese finance. Blunt will play Zoe, one half of a married couple with John (played by John Krasinski) whose family life is turned upside down when they inherit a rundown circus and a mysterious box of Animal Crackers, which magically changes the person who eats them into animals. Scott Christian Sava is co-directing with Tony Bancroft (“Mulan”) from a script he co-wrote with Dean Lorey. Blunt joins a cast that already includes Sylvester Stallone, Ian McKellen and Danny DeVito. The film is produced by Blue Dream Studios in a partnership with Beijing Wen Hua Dongrun Investment Co. and China Film Co. Australian inde- This 1966 photo shows, from left, Chris Stamp, Pete Townshend of The Who, and Kit This 1966 photo shows, Chris Stamp, left, business manager, and Kit Lambert, manager pendent sales agent Odin’s Eye is representing the Lambert, at Windsor Jazz Festival, included in a scene from the documentary film, (producer on the album, ‘Tommy’) of the English rock band, The Who, going up to international rights. Release is set for mid-2016. ‘Lambert & Stamp.’ Manchester on the train in England, included in the new documentary film, ‘Lambert & Other key credits go to character designer Carter Stamp.’ — AP photos Goodrich, and Jamie Thomason as voice and casting director. Besides Sava, “Animal Crackers” producers are George Lee and Marcus Englefield from Storyoscopic Films, James Thomason and Leiming In ‘Lambert & Stamp,’ the Guan. Financing the movie are exec producers Mu Yedong on behalf of Wen Hua Dongrun Investment Co; La Peikang, board chairman of China Film Co.; and Sam Chi for Landmark Asia. backstage story of The Who “Animal Crackers” is the first independent animated feature for Blue Dream Studios, which has been he teenage revolution was in full force on the fall 1964 Directorial debut unconventional orchestrators. (Daltrey, Townshend says in a producing animation for TV and film for Hollywood’s night that Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp stumbled into the “I loved them immediately,” says Pete Townshend, the gui- way that could only be cutting, was the only “conventional” fig- major studios since 2000. The company has expand- Railway Tavern, a London pub where a band called the tarist and songwriter of The Who, in the film. “They changed my ure of the bunch.) But the film, perhaps inevitably, subsides in ed into publishing its own graphic novels, one of T which, “The Luckiest Boy,” was purchased for produc- High Numbers was playing and mods were gyrating. It was life forever.” Lambert and Stamp would mold The Who (among the second half, as the familiar fallout of fame - drugs, death, London’s Swinging ‘60s, with its subculture explosion and styl- other things they encouraged the songwriting of Townshend) disputes over a film of the rock opera “Tommy” - wrecks the tion by Fox in 2014. — Reuters ish youths. Such is the scene, glimpsed in footage shot that into one of the great rock ‘n’ roll bands. And it all started with an relationships. “Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose,” was the night, at the beginning of the riotously entertaining new docu- idea that, as Townshend says in the documentary, was intended anthem The Who sang, and their managers (who signed Jimi mentary “Lambert & Stamp.” Lambert and Stamp were assistant to “blow itself up” in a year or two. Hendrix to a record deal before actually having a record label) film directors, frustrated by not ascending to the director’s chair, “Lambert & Stamp,” the directorial debut of James D Cooper, were perfect representatives of the song. Emily Blunt but full of wild ideas. They wanted to find a band to make a film a veteran cinematographer, is an intimate rock documentary Their genius was in realizing the sea change that was hap- about, but their plans had wider cultural aspirations: “a mad that eludes most of the standard beats of the genre. By focus- pening. “You don’t market TO them. You market THEM,” (expletive) concoction of stuff,” says Stamp in the film. ing on the managers - the band’s so-called fifth and sixth mem- Townshend says of the new audience relationship. Speaking to The frenetic energy and loud rhythm and blues riffs of the bers, “the shell of the egg” as singer Roger Daltrey says - the a skeptical news program, in French no less, Lambert predicts High Numbers hit like a thunderclap, even if they lacked in movie takes a wider view, capturing the composite nature of that the ‘60s Mod scene was no mere fad, but a youth move- looks. (Later, some would worry that they were too ugly to creative invention and cultural change. It’s almost all depicted ment that would regenerate with every generation. Indeed, the make it big.) When Lambert and Stamp became their man- in the film in black and white: gritty in period footage, classy in Who got older; the kids stayed the same age. “Lambert & agers, they urged them to take an earlier, abandoned name: contemporary interviews. Stamp died in 2012, but was inter- Stamp,” a Sony Pictures Classics release, is rated R by the Motion The Who. The infatuation was mutual. Lambert and Stamp had viewed extensively before passing away. Lambert, though, died Picture Association of America for “language, some drug con- zero knowledge of the music business, but they were a capti- in 1981. His presence (the more magnetic and fascinating of the tent and brief nudity.” Running time: 117 minutes.

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