Showing posts with label Niharika Singh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Niharika Singh. Show all posts
No one is doing charity by making films on Dalits. Do them right or stay away-Somnath Waghmare
8:10 AM
Despite the occasional film centred around a Dalit character, Hindi cinema has pretty much skirted around the realities of the caste system. This week, the poster of a forthcoming film, Madam Chief Minister, drew criticism for its problematic representation of a Dalit politician. Filmmaker and researcher Somnath Waghmare spoke to Sonam Joshi about the controversy and the importance of Dalit filmmakers telling their own stories
Sonam Joshi (THE TIMES OF INDIA; January 10, 2021)
Your academic research at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai focuses on the portrayal of caste in Marathi cinema. What about Hindi films? Has there been a positive change?
Historically, the Hindi film industry has been dominated by savarnas and keeps putting out their stories. Even though Mumbai was B R Ambedkar’s city, he has zero presence in cinema. For example, Franz Osten’s Achhut Kanya came out in 1936 when Ambedkar was already a strong leader and had debated with Gandhi on the Poona Pact but it ignores this. Instead, the cinema of that time glorified Gandhi’s idea of Harjians but not Ambedkar’s social vision of ‘educate, agitate, organise.’ Bimal Roy’s Sujata, which was made in 1959 and has a Dalit protagonist, makes a reference to Mahatma Gandhi but not to Ambedkar. These were parallel and progressive filmmakers but they ignored the anti-caste discourse and portrayed Dalit women as victims and male Brahmins as saviours. This tradition continues in films till today, whether it’s Bandit Queen or Article 15. In the latter, the police officer who came from a dominant caste doesn’t know his own caste. Is this possible in India?
After criticism, actor Richa Chadha who plays the lead in Madam Chief Minister, which is loosely based on Mayawati, argued that it was better that she play the role rather than such stories not being told at all. What is your take?
This argument reflects caste arrogance. Let’s start with the poster which was problematic because there was no reason to show the protagonist with a broom in her hand.
Mayawati is a well-educated woman and a four-time CM. Was she ever seen sweeping with a broom? Her father worked in a post office and she was a teacher. It is a stereotypical idea of Dalits to give her a broom and make her look weak. Even if there aren’t enough Dalit stories being told on screen, no one is doing charity by making these films. If you don’t have the skill, capacity or understanding to deal with such issues, it is better to pass the mike to people who do.
Do you draw hope from the rise of filmmakers such as Nagraj Popatrao Manjule (Marathi) and Pa Ranjith (Tamil)?
Filmmakers such as Manjule and Ranjith have tried to break this narrative of victimisation. For instance, in Kabali, Ranjith takes a mainstream actor like Rajinikanth and then talks about Ambedkarite politics. Manjule’s Sairat takes the core caste question in the village to the mainstream with a lot of honesty. Fandry also talks about Dalit assertion because the character doesn’t die in the end. These filmmakers portray Dalits as normal humans. Most importantly, these films have an ideological position. For instance in Kaala, Rajinikanth is a Dalit don from Mumbai’s Dharavi and uses symbols like Ambedkar, Phule and Buddha. In Fandry too, you see the imagery of these social reformers and their ideas come across. We see more people from marginalised communities attempting this in regional cinema but in Bollywood, where dominant castes dominate, there are very few possibilities.
How can the film industry encourage more diversity?
There are many Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs in the Hindi and Marathi film industries but they hide their identity by changing their last names. In 2019, Neeraj Ghaywan put out a call on Twitter for assistant directors and assistant writers from Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi (DBA) backgrounds. Actor Niharika Singh also launched a film training programme for the DBA community. This is the only way. People may abuse reservations but because of them there is some diversity in every government department today. There is an annual diversity report in Hollywood. Imagine if we had to create a report like this. The truth would come out.
What are the common caste stereotypes portrayed in films?
Filmmakers usually glorify their own castes while Dalits, adivasis and OBCs are shown as peons and criminals. Recently, there was an ad that showed a man with a Dalit surname as an online stalker, which was later withdrawn. I haven’t seen any character named Waghmare in films, who isn’t a criminal. During research, I found that post-Sairat, there were no Dalit stories but a reaction in the form of titles with dominant caste surnames such as Carry On Deshpande. There is a lot of anti-reservation discourse in cinema as well.
What about your own journey as a filmmaker?
I choose subjects that are close to my experience. I made Battle of Bhima Koregaon in 2017 because I heard stories of the battle from my mother and grandmother while growing up. I am making a film on Chaityabhoomi, the resting place of Ambedkar, where lakhs gather every year on his death anniversary on December 6. I am also working on a biopic of anti-caste activist and sociologist Gail Omvedt, who came to India from the US, and her husband Dr Bharat Patankar, who lived just 10 km from my college.
However, there is one thing that I discovered when I went back to my village in Maharashtra due to the lockdown — caste hasn’t changed at all. Your personal worth is still decided by your position in the caste hierarchy. Even if you do a PhD from Oxford University, they still see you the same way.
Aaliya Siddiqui slams affair rumours
8:20 AM
Shreya Mukherjee (HINDUSAN TIMES; May 23, 2020)
The divorce dispute between actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui and his wife Aaliya aka Anjana Kishor Pandey took a new turn after there were rumours of her alleged affair with common friend Peeyush Pandey. After the latter rubbished the rumours, Aaliya joined Twitter to “put the truth” out.
“I am not into ‘any relationship’,” she wrote and added the photo was cropped to “make such ridiculous claims to divert attention”.
Talking to us, Aaliya says, “Some people only know how to cheat and malign others. Everyone knows of Nawaz’s affairs. Even Niharika Singh [who was in a relationship with him] said she was unaware of his marriage.”
The 37-year-old says the picture doing the rounds is manipulated, from a party. “If you check photos I tweeted, you’d know,” she adds.
As for Nawaz, she shares their kids Shora (9) and Yaani (5) would get scared seeing them fight. “He doesn’t want their responsibility so I’ve sought their sole custody,” she adds.
Fearing legal repercussions, Nawazuddin Siddiqui withdraws his memoir 'An Ordinary Life'
8:28 AM
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.
-------------------------------
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.”
Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s tell-all biography lands him in a legal soup
8:12 AM
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; October 30, 2017)
after mid-day published explosive excerpts from Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s tell-all biography, An Ordinary Life: A Memoir, about his affair with Niharika Singh, the actor finds himself in hot water.
While Singh had admitted to mid-day (in the issue dated October 25) that she was considering legal action against Siddiqui for sharing intimate details about their relationship without her consent, Delhi advocate Gautam Gulati has registered a complaint at National Commission for Women (NCW) against him for outraging the modesty of his Miss Lovely co-star.
Gulati says, “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.”
Following the furore that Siddiqui’s racy confessions had created, a livid Singh had revealed to the media that she had found out later that “he had a wife in the village whom he never spoke about.”
In his complaint, Gulati writes, “The actor has published it without having second thoughts about how this kind of act can ruin the married life of the victim. For minting money and garnering free publicity for his book, the actor has bargained the modesty of a woman.”
Sources inform that the NCW is likely to summon Singh for an inquiry next week. The book will be launched on November 2.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui has chosen to fabricate stories and manipulate a fleeting relationship-Niharika Singh
8:04 AM
After mid-day publishes Nawazuddin’s raunchy confessions about ex-lover Niharika Singh, starlet lashes out, calls him exploitative
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; October 25, 2017)
A day after mid-day published excerpts from Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s tell-all biography, An Ordinary Life: A Memoir, about his affair with Niharika Singh, the Miss Lovely actor is seeing red. Singh said that she is contemplating legal action against him for defaming her and spilling details about their relationship without her consent. “When that happens, I will let you know,” she replied to this reporter on text message.
Claiming that the stories are fabricated, she said, “Nawaz and I had a brief relationship 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 my bedroom with candles, I can only laugh. He obviously wants to sell his book.”
However, a source close to Siddiqui claimed to be aghast at Singh playing the victim card considering she was in the loop all along. The source said, “To suggest that he had done it without her knowledge is incorrect on her part. He’d written the book when he was in New York about a year ago, and he had made it a point to inform her about it categorically.”
The source added that Siddiqui was initially amused over Singh crying foul over his confessions. “He found her statement funny. But when a few media people landed up at his place for his comment, he realised that she’d stretched it too far.”
In the excerpt published by midday on October 23, Siddiqui revealed how his affair with Singh began. “For the very first time I went to Niharika’s house... When she opened the door, revealing a glimpse of the house, I was speechless with amazement. A hundred, or so it seemed, little candles flickered beautifully. She wore soft faux fur, looking devastatingly gorgeous, her beauty illuminated even more in the candlelight. And I, being the lusty village bumpkin that I am, scooped her up in my arms and headed straight for the bedroom. We made passionate love. And just like that, out of the blue, I began a relationship with Niharika Singh, a relationship which I did not know then would last for almost one and a half years...”
Siddiqui also claimed that Singh would send mails to one of his lovers on his behalf. Horrified that Siddiqui had gone public with his confessions, Singh issued a statement on Tuesday, saying, “He has chosen to fabricate stories and manipulate a fleeting relationship. None of what he has written has been with my knowledge, let alone my consent. It is this very aspect of Nawaz that caused me to end my relationship with him in the first place. I have always maintained that he’s a brilliant actor. However, I had hoped these acting skills would have remained confined only to the screen. Still, I wish him well.”
How Nawazuddin Siddiqui's real-life romances mirror his career graph
8:01 AM
Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s romances, with false starts and theatricalities, take after his career graph
Nishi Tiwari (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 25, 2017)
Nawazuddin Siddiqui had proved his acting mettle early on in his career with blink-and-you-miss yet powerful turns in Sarfarosh (1999) and Black Friday (2007). But it was only in 2012, that the actor truly waltzed into the public consciousness as Faisal, the reluctant heir to Manoj Bajpayee’s Sardar Khan in Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs Of Wasseypur.
In his memoir, An Ordinary Life, published by Penguin Random House India and co-written with Rituparna Chatterjee, Nawaz springs another surprise by way of his relationships.
Much like the mild-mannered Faizal whose propensity for the mafia world is serendipitous in the wake of his father’s assassination, Nawaz’s first relationship set him on a path of love and episodic heartbreak. Despite himself — he describes himself as a “lusty village bumpkin” and a “selfish bastard” self-consciously — he would go on to date several women before settling down. And revisit their memory with a poetically wistful flair that we wouldn’t have associated with him. “It was very sweet, like rain is after a very long spell of drought,” he says about his first girlfriend — another National School of Drama graduate.
When it ends, as abruptly as it began and on the girl’s terms, the low hits him as unassumingly as the high of the first rushes. “With every brushstroke, I tried to erase her off my heart as well. But, of course, the brush refused to do double duty and erased only the marks on the wall, not the scars on my heart,” he narrates.
Then, there’s a “lovely, dear Jewish girl from New Jersey, who lived in New York City”, Suzanne, who followed Nawaz back to India and kept extending her visa every few months to live in with him. Her departure (to sort out her visa) coincided with Nawaz commencing work on Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely in 2012, where he met actress Niharika Singh.
He documents their relationship that, according to him, started off with them heading straight to the bedroom, and lasted a little over a year. The tone is consistently reverential and unassuming but Niharika has stated that it was a fleeting romance, and that Nawaz is talking about it just to sell his book. The jury is still out on the veracity of both their claims. Nawaz closes the romance chapter of his life with his first wife, Sheeba, and girlfriend-turned- current wife, Aaliya (aka Anjali). Unsurprisingly, Aaliya is to Nawaz what Mohsina was to Faisal.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui had proved his acting mettle early on in his career with blink-and-you-miss yet powerful turns in Sarfarosh (1999) and Black Friday (2007). But it was only in 2012, that the actor truly waltzed into the public consciousness as Faisal, the reluctant heir to Manoj Bajpayee’s Sardar Khan in Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs Of Wasseypur.
In his memoir, An Ordinary Life, published by Penguin Random House India and co-written with Rituparna Chatterjee, Nawaz springs another surprise by way of his relationships.
Much like the mild-mannered Faizal whose propensity for the mafia world is serendipitous in the wake of his father’s assassination, Nawaz’s first relationship set him on a path of love and episodic heartbreak. Despite himself — he describes himself as a “lusty village bumpkin” and a “selfish bastard” self-consciously — he would go on to date several women before settling down. And revisit their memory with a poetically wistful flair that we wouldn’t have associated with him. “It was very sweet, like rain is after a very long spell of drought,” he says about his first girlfriend — another National School of Drama graduate.
When it ends, as abruptly as it began and on the girl’s terms, the low hits him as unassumingly as the high of the first rushes. “With every brushstroke, I tried to erase her off my heart as well. But, of course, the brush refused to do double duty and erased only the marks on the wall, not the scars on my heart,” he narrates.
Then, there’s a “lovely, dear Jewish girl from New Jersey, who lived in New York City”, Suzanne, who followed Nawaz back to India and kept extending her visa every few months to live in with him. Her departure (to sort out her visa) coincided with Nawaz commencing work on Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely in 2012, where he met actress Niharika Singh.
He documents their relationship that, according to him, started off with them heading straight to the bedroom, and lasted a little over a year. The tone is consistently reverential and unassuming but Niharika has stated that it was a fleeting romance, and that Nawaz is talking about it just to sell his book. The jury is still out on the veracity of both their claims. Nawaz closes the romance chapter of his life with his first wife, Sheeba, and girlfriend-turned- current wife, Aaliya (aka Anjali). Unsurprisingly, Aaliya is to Nawaz what Mohsina was to Faisal.
I had a plain aim: go to her house, make out and leave-Nawazuddin Siddiqui
12:00 PM
MID-DAY (October 23, 2017)
'(My first relation] was like rain after a spell of drought'
I was performing in a play in Mumbai which was when I finally had my first romantic relationship. Incidentally, she too happened to be an NSD graduate, though we had never met there. It was very sweet, like rain is after a very long spell of drought. Sunita had fallen madly in love with me. Every day, she would come over, hang out at my house in Mira Road and scrawl our names in tiny font all over the wall... Then she went off on a holiday to her home town in the hills to see her folks. When she returned, Sunita would not take any of my calls. And when she did at last, I was flabbergasted. After such a deep, passionate love, she simply said, 'Nawaz, you focus on your career. And I will focus on my career.' She cut off all contact after that and I plunged into another deep, deep depression. I took a bucket of fresh white paint and began to replace her artwork on my walls with the blank canvas that they were before...
Living in Mira Road meant that the local train was our lifeline. We were at the station almost all the time. Soon after her call, one day I was at the station and stood there staring at the tracks. A train was coming, screaming its arrival with a lusty horn. It would be simple and instant. Should I jump on to the tracks and end it all? End this struggle, end this life? I had nothing. No love, no work, no money. But some being woke up in me and gave me a metaphorical slap. 'You know this is not your department,' the voice in my head said. 'Then why? Why did you go that way? Why!' it screamed at me.
The train sped away, screaming pompously, cutting through the air... I decided that I would never again be emotional in any relationship... Never again did I allow myself to be vulnerable like that again, not even with my wife... Yet it was important to analyse what had happened... [Sunita must have been advised] she should probably date someone successful, not a struggling, desperate actor who was out of work. Today, Sunita tells everybody that she was once together with me in a very serious relationship. Incredible, isn't it?
'What happens in New York stays in New York'
Those years between 2006 and 2010 were pretty incredible too. The industry had begun to notice me... Strangely, the West was kinder to me first, both in terms of love and work... I was at a cafe once with my friend in New York City's Soho area. The stunning waitress kept staring at me... 'You? You are an actor?' she asked a rhetorical question. 'Yes!' I replied. 'Which film of mine did you see? Gangs of Wasseypur?' She squinted, trying to remember, 'No, no,' she said. 'Another film!' After a few moments, she responded: 'Lunchbox!' We got talking and let's just say what happens in New York stays in New York...
'Why are you not mailing me, Nawaz?'
Before that came Suzanne: a lovely, dear Jewish girl from New Jersey, who lived in New York City. We met there and hit it off. She came to Mumbai and began to live with me... Every few months, she kept extending her visa... The shooting of Miss Lovely commenced. Suzanne used to accompany me there. Then came the day when her visa expired and she needed to return to New York to sort it out. She was gone for many months. One day, while we were shooting a dance scene, something happened to my co-star Niharika Singh... She was suddenly cold, went out of her way to maintain a distance from me and began to keep mum. I was puzzled... She used to be friendly, social and talk quite a bit. I thought it was best to ask her what had happened and so I did, not once, not twice, but several times, for several days... I invited her over for a home-cooked meal, a mutton dish which was my speciality. She politely agreed and came over... Not only did she eat everything that was on her plate, but she praised it as well.
'Now you come to my house, Nawaz. I will cook mutton for you,' she said warmly. For the very first time I went to Niharika's house... When she opened the door, revealing a glimpse of the house, I was speechless with amazement. A hundred, or so it seemed, little candles flickered beautifully. She wore soft faux fur, looking devastatingly gorgeous, her beauty illuminated even more in the candlelight. And I, being the lusty village bumpkin that I am, scooped her up in my arms and headed straight for the bedroom. We made passionate love. And just like that, out of the blue, I began a relationship with Niharika Singh, a relationship which I did not know then would last for almost one and a half years...
Meantime, emails from Suzanne started coming. 'Why are you not mailing me, Nawaz? What's wrong?' I did not respond... I trusted my silence would convey what needed to be conveyed. When I was checking my inbox one day, Niharika happened to see one of her emails. 'Who is this?' she inquired. 'You know very well who it is,' I said. 'It's Suzanne.' 'Wo-ow! It's still going on between you two! Amazing!' Niharika thundered in anger. 'It is wrong. I hope you know that...'
From that day, Niharika began to send emails to Suzanne from my email address. She would type, 'I cannot continue with you ...' and sign off as me. Imagine the shock for Suzanne. She would send heartbreaking replies... After a few of these email exchanges, Suzanne figured that this was not my voice at all. 'Who is this writing, Nawaz? I know this is not you... Who is she? Who is this b***h?' 'B***h!' That word infuriated Niharika so much that she made me end all correspondence with Suzanne forever... I was very sad. Then I thought, so be it, it's all right, I am with Niharika. My melancholy evaporated quickly.
'I was a rascal who cared only for himself'
Niharika was an intelligent girl. Being an actor herself meant that she knew and understood my struggle for work... She would call me in frequent spurts throughout the day demanding to know of my whereabouts... [Then] The regularity of the questions felt like being nagged non-stop... There was another piece to this puzzle. Like all girls, Niharika obviously expected some of the sweet conversations that lovers have, to take place between us. But I was quite a selfish b*****d. I had a plain aim: go to her house, make out and leave. I could not talk lovey-dovey too much. It finally struck her that I was a rascal who cared only for himself. (Actually, all the girls I have ever been with have had this same complaint about me. I would only come to them for my own needs. Otherwise, I might not even take their calls.) When I went to her place next, she was wearing a silk robe. I ran my hand over its coolness around her waist, grabbing her but she pushed me away. 'No, Nawaz!' she said. 'I won't meet you again. This is enough.' I pleaded, I cried, I apologized. But she remained adamant. She had had enough. So that was that, we broke up cutting off all contact. Two months later, another girl came into my life in a most mysterious way. I did not know then that years later, I would marry her."
Excerpts from Siddiqui's tell-all biography An Ordinary Life (Penguin-Viking, 2017)
Nawazuddin Siddiqui-Niharika Singh get intimate in Miss Lovely
7:45 AM
Parag Maniar (BOMBAY TIMES; January 6, 2014)
In his upcoming film Miss Lovely, Nawazuddin Siddiqui will be seen sharing his first on-screen kiss with Niharika Singh. Interestingly, even when shooting began, the actor was unaware of the kissing scene. The fact that Niharika is a former beauty queen — she was Miss India Earth (2005) — made him feel even more apprehensive.
Says he, “Though the director Ashim Ahluwalia had already briefed Niharika about the kissing scene, I was told only on the day of the shoot. I was nervous as I had never done this kind of a scene before. I smoke and wondered how the smell of cigarettes would go down with her. I desperately started looking for a breath freshener, but the unit members did not have one. Somehow, Niharika got to know about it and just before the shot, she handed me a mouth-freshener. We then went about doing the scene smoothly.”
Miss Lovely, by Future East and Fortissimo Films, and produced by Shumona Goel, releases January 17.
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