Following a complaint registered by a Delhi-based advocate with the National Commission for Women
Nishi Tiwari (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 31, 2017)

Over a week since excerpts from Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s memoir, An Ordinary Life, started doing the media rounds, the actor, and his publisher, Penguin Random House India, have decided to pull the book off the stands following its much-hyped October 25 release.

The news came close on the heels of reports that Delhi based advocate Gautam Gulati has registered a complaint with the National Commission for Women (NCW) for outraging the modesty of Nawaz’s Miss Lovely co-star, Niharika Singh.

The publishers confirmed that the book has been recalled but refused to divulge further details. Nawaz share on Twitter, “I am apologising to everyone whose sentiments are hurt because of the chaos around my memoir, An Ordinary Life. I hereby regret and decide to withdraw my book.”

Gulati was quoted as saying, “I don’t know Niharika Singh personally nor have I spoken to her. I have lodged a complaint with NCW with a request to give direction for the registration of FIR under sections 376 (rape), 497 (adultery) and 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman) of IPC. He was evidently married when he was having an affair with Niharika and kept her in the dark about it.”

Snippets from Nawaz’s tell-all memoir assumed a life of their own, when people mentioned in them pleaded misrepresentation. Niharika Singh, who met the actor on the sets of Ashim Ahluwalia’s 2012 film, Miss Lovely, wrote a scathing rebuttal to his claims that they dated for over a year. “Nawaz and I had a brief relationship in 2009 during the making of Miss Lovely that lasted less than a few months. So today when he paints me as a woman in fur enticing him into her bedroom with candles, or desperately calling him and mailing other women on his behalf, I can only laugh. He obviously wants to sell his book and it would appear that he is willing to exploit and disrespect a woman just to do so,” the actress clarified in a Facebook post.

This was followed by another rebuttal from Sunita Rajwar, Nawaz’s first girlfriend and a fellow NSD graduate. Calling him a perennial “sympathy seeker”, she wrote in her own Facebook post, “I did not leave you because you were poor, but because of your poor way of thinking.”

Rituparna Chatterjee, the US-based author of the book, remained unavalaible for comment.

On condition of anonymity, a publishing professional told Mirror that the book should’ve masked the identities of all parties involved and also sought their permission before publishing details of their interactions with Nawaz.
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Fearing legal repercussions to his raunchy expose, actor withdraws copies of his memoir from bookshelves to rewrite his story
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; October 31, 2017)

It has been a trumatic week for Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who faced severe backlash after mid-day published explosive excerpts from his tell-all biography, An Ordinary Life: A Memoir, about his affair with Niharika Singh. In a dramatic move, the actor took to his Twitter yesterday to announce that he was withdrawing his memoir in the light of events that transpired over the past few days.

Siddiqui wrote, “I am apologizing to everyone whose sentiments are hurt because of the chaos around my memoir #AnOrdinaryLife. I hereby regret and decide to withdraw my book. (grammar corrected)”

He found himself in the eye of the storm ever since the excerpts were exclusively published in mid- day. Close on the heels of his raunchy confessions, Niharika Singh had slammed the actor in an interview to midday (October 25), where she claimed that she was considering legal action.

On October 29, Delhi advocate Gautam Gulati lodged a complaint with National Women’s Commision, requesting for an FIR to be filed against him for adultery, rape and ‘insulting the modesty of a woman.’

Sources close to the actor reveal that the decision to withdraw the book was not a knee-jerk reaction. “He is deeply upset with the reactions that have come in. A senior Bollywood star was supposed to grace the book launch, but backed out following the controversy. NCW too has summoned him following the complaint. To avoid any further mess, he thought it best to withdraw the book,” revealed a source.

The publishing house, Penguin-Viking, had printed nearly 4000 copies, of which about 2000 have been already sold off from e-commerce websites. The publishers have now requested the sellers to return the remaining copies.

The spokesperson of the publishing house confirmed the same. However, insiders in the publishing house claim that the memoir will now be rewritten in parts, with the focus firmly on his journey from Muzaffarnagar to Bollywood. “A conversation has been initiated with Rituparna Chatterjee [co- author of the memoir]. All details of his marriage and personal life will be removed in the new version,” added the source. Chatterjee, on her part, told mid- day, “It’s way too early to comment.”

Miss Lovely actor Singh didn’t respond to our message till the time of going to press. As far as his legal case is concerned, advocate Rizwan Siddiquee representing the actor said, “The complaint made to the NCW is baseless. He has 48 hours to withdraw it.”