On Monday, Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui put up a cryptic tweet about not being “fair and handsome”, kicking up a storm about how the film industry harbours a racist attitude towards anybody who isn’t fair-skinned. While social media responded to his tweets with words of encouragement, the actor finally opened up about why he tweeted that.
“Someone told me something the other day. Thus I wrote what I felt. I will not take the name of the person though,” he told Indian Express.
The actor, promoting his upcoming film Munna Michael, spoke to NDTV about his tweet.
“All that had happened was there in the tweet. What more can I say on this? Something must have happened for me to have tweeted that. Jobless people are busy trolling others, which is really upsetting. It’s very easy to say things about someone. But to achieve something takes a lot of time – 15-20 years maybe. It’s easy to say and write that the industry and mindset is changing. But racism is everywhere. Even in my village. I’ve been told to get a fair-skinned bride and when I went to Mumbai to become an actor, they all said, ‘Have you seen your face?’,” he said.
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Nawazuddin, who began his film career early in 1999, initially had many small roles in films. “I’ve been told that I’m not hero material. My question is, what is a hero material. It’s been 12 years that I have been in this industry and still, I don’t know what is meant by the term hero material,” he told Indian Express.
The actor is known for his performance in Gangs of Wasseypur and Raman Raghav, and is regarded as one of the finest actors in Bollywood.