Happy Birthday Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Comments [ 2 ] By Jenifer Y. | 19 May 2014 | 9:22pm

Today marks the birthday of a contemporary actor who makes a conscious decision to appear in varied and unique roles. Achieving fame late in his career, once recognition struck, people were swept off their feet with his performances. We are talking of none other than Nawazuddin Siddiqui!

Born on 19th May, 1974, Siddiqui turns 40 today. Born into a Muslim family now consisting of seven brothers and two sisters, his father was a farmer and his mother a homemaker. Siddiqui pursued a degree in Science at Gurukul Kangri University in Uttarakand after which he worked as a chemist for a short span of time. He then moved to Delhi where he worked as a watchman whilst joining a theater group. He eventually graduated from The National School of Drama in 1996. Siddiqui is now married and has a daughter named Shora.

After graduating the second time, Siddiqui moved to Mumbai where he struggled for some time before making his Bollywood debut in 1999 with Shool. Since his screen time was so minute, he was barely recognized and somehow found himself being offered stereotypical roles of pick-pocketers or other petty criminals. He suffered greatly during this period and only survived by holding small acting workshops.

Siddiqui's ordeal for success finally ended in 2004 when he starred as Asgar Mukadam in Black Friday. He continued to march full steam ahead and acted in many other critically acclaimed movies. His first lead role was for the feature film Patang (2007-2008) which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and for which his natural performance received much applause. The dashing actor then appeared in a cameo in "Emotional Atyachar" from Dev D (2009) before starring as Zilgai in New York (2009), which again drew much praise and commendations from critics. Siddiqui then acted in PEEPLI [Live] (2010) and Paan Singh Tomar (2012) before finally becoming a household name with Kahaani (2012), Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1 and 2 (2012) and Talaash (2012).

Since then there has been no looking back as he continued to star in critically and commercially acclaimed roles and movies. His later works include Aatma (2013), Bombay Talkies (2013) and the internationally acclaimed The Lunchbox (2013). Currently, the busy actor has Kick, Ghoomketu and Miyan Kal Aana in the pipeline for 2014.

On his birthday here is a short playlist of some of the songs in which he appeared in: