Emptied Me

Nawazuddin Siddiqui: Character of Raman Raghav emptied me from within

नवाजुद्दीन सिद्दीकी: रमन राघव का कैरेक्टर मेरे अंदर से खाली

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui is not only a powerhouse of talent but a delight to talk to. He took some time out of his busy schedule for a live chat with us and spoke about his upcoming film 'Raman Raghav 2.0', directed by Anurag Kashyap who has created a spur in the industry with his movies such as 'Gangs of Wasseypur' with Nawaz.
The duo is now back together for this thriller set in the 1960s based on the life of a psychotic serial killer Raman Raghav, who operated in the city of Mumbai. When asked about how much Raman Raghav influenced him and what was it like to play the role he said, "When you take something from the character you play, character too takes a lot of you with it. Characters like Raman Raghav can empty you and that's what happened with me. Raman Raghav was not a normal guy; he had his own philosophy, he lived in his own world and his thoughts were very different from normal human beings. And I knew that I will have to honestly believe in his ideologies to be able to portray the character well and do complete justice to it. Woh karne mein mujhe badi difficult hui because I am not like Raman Raghav in real life. He had a logic behind every murder. Woh toh logo ko maar ke maze leta tha. He had a justification for every murder he committed and thought his criminal acts were right. It took me time to absorb that logic of his and get into the skin of the character. But after a few rehearsals, I could finally catch the rhythm. Finally uska sur pakad mein aaya. But it was mentally so exhausting that I was hospitalised while shooting for the film. It took time for me to come out of the character. After completing the film, I went straight to my native and worked as a farmer in my farms to become normal and get back to my normal self to be able to come back and work as a normal human being on my other films."