Nawazuddin Siddiqui's visit to his village, the hamlet of Budhana in Muzaffarnagar, has turned out to be unusually unpleasant. For a week, he has been countering allegations of assault and dowry harassment levelled by his sister-in-law against him and his family. And now, after he had agreed to play a small role in the local Ramlila of his hometown, the performance was stopped by the Shiv Sena, who objected to 'a Muslim actor being on stage in the Ramlila'.

On Tuesday, Nawaz was approached by artists from Budhana's Ramlila, asking him to attend the function. When the actor insisted that he was willing to play even some minor part in the production, the crew arranged for him to play Mareech on Wednesday. “People had come to invite me for the Ramlila and I asked them if I could play a character in it, since it was something I had always wanted to do. They offered me the role of Mareech, since it was the only one that was to be staged before I had to leave for Delhi,“ the actor had happily told us before he went on stage.

However, on Wednesday night, minutes before Nawaz was to go on stage, around a dozen activists from the local unit of Shiv Sena asked the organisers to stop the performance because they were against 'a Muslim actor going on stage in a Ramlila'. Mukesh Sharma, the Shiv Sena's Muzaffarnagar vice president, told us, “In the 50-60 year history of the Budhana Ramlila, no Muslim artist has set foot on the stage. We couldn't allow that now. It's about tradition. On top of that, it is wrong on the part of the Ramlila organisers to chuck out the actor who was initially supposed to play Mareech at the last minute, just so that they could have a famous actor on stage. Moreover, Nawazuddin is a disputed figure here. His sister-in-law has levelled allegations of assault and dowry harassment against him. We shouldn't have such a person associated with the Ramlila.“

After the Shiv Sena's protest, the organisers decided to call off the Ramlila for the night, which meant that Nawaz could not take the stage in front of his home crowd. The organisers say that it was the actors performing in the Ramlila who had spoken to Nawaz, and they were not in the loop on the whole development. Damodar Sharma, president of Budhana's Ramlila Committee, says, “The committee wasn't informed in time about Nawazuddin playing Mareech. It was a decision taken by the artists. We got to know only two hours before the performance and before we could request for additional police presence, the protesters reached the spot. We realised that given Budhana is a communally sensitive area, it would not be wise to argue with them. Hence, we decided not to proceed with it.“

It would have been Nawaz's first performance in his hometown, Budhana, and he had told us that his family and friends were very excited at the prospect of seeing him act. Before the protest, he had told us, “All day, my family and friends had been texting all our acquaintances in town and everyone is very excited to see me act. Everyone has come. For me, it is special because it is the first time I will be acting in my hometown. That was a desire I had since I was a kid.“

Police officials say that they were not asked for any additional security, and it was the decision of the Ramlila organisers not to go ahead with Nawaz's performance. DK Tyagi, SHO, Budhana, says, “We had deployed our men there, as we do every year, but there was no law and order issue. It must have been a decision by the organisers not to stage the Ramlila, because there was no insistence or pressure from our side. The two sides talked and reached some agreement themselves. We were not asked to intervene. In fact, if Nawazuddin Siddiqui performs on stage now, we will provide security and ensure there is no problem at the venue.“

Before this unfortunate development, Nawaz had told DT that acting in Budhana's Ramlila had been a childhood dream for him. When asked why performing in the Ramlila meant so much to him, the actor had said, “When I was growing up here, there was boy named Madan who used to play Ram in the local Ramlila. Even though he was my age, we all used to respect him be cause of the aura around him, since he was Ram. I used to be fascinated by that. Toh tab se hi khwahish thi ki mujhe bhi Ramlila mein perform karna hai.“
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MUMBAI MIRROR (October 7, 2016)