In recent years, many books have gained a new audience through on-screen adaptations. Discussions on screen adaptations and how they can breathe a new life into stories have become a major section at film festivals and literature events across the country.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who played leading roles in Sacred Games and Serious Men, recently shared his experience of working on book adaptations.

“A film or a web series may start from a particular point in the book or could be a slice from the book, but I still make sure to read the book along with the screenplay because the book provides a solid background.”

He added, “I didn't want to do Sacred Games because I thought I had played a similar character in Gangs Of Wasseypur. However, Anurag Kashyap convinced me that this character will have more layers and will be deeper. While doing this role, I realized the true meaning of versatility. I understood that playing similar roles doesn't mean typecasting, but portraying different rolers in a similar manner is.”

“I was cautious about that; I didn’t want it to be another Faizal Khan (Gangs of Wasseypur) or Raman Raghav (in Raman Raghav 2.0) because they were also gangsters. Gaitonde was a gangster, but he got so much love because the audience never judged him. When I’m playing any character, I ask 10-12 crew members ‘What are you thinking about this character?’ Whatever is the common view among all of them, I keep that in mind while playing the character.”

“For Manto, I thought, why not play myself? Because I also have similar thoughts. I never tried to play Manto in the film. I asked – how would I react to these situations? Hum log keh toh nahi paate apne thoughts, apne characters ke zariye hi keh sakte hain.”

“Serious men ke mere character mein ek khalish hai jo shayad mere andar bhi hai. This could be due to my appearance or perhaps because of my background. So, I found a deep connection with the character. There is a scene in Serious Men, where my character talks about his caste and he is comfortable talking about it. I, as Nawaz, I’m also comfortable saying those dialogues because I come from a similar background. However, what my character did with his child is something I could never imagine doing with my own children.”