Why Nawazuddin Siddiqui Is Now The 'Desi Bond'

New Delhi: Nawazuddin Siddiqui is currently shooting for Nandita Das' Manto in Mumbai and promoting Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, which is ready for release. His role in this movie has shades of his character from Gangs of Wasseypur, but he explained what the difference between the two is. "Firstly, I come from Muzaffarnagar which is in Eastern Uttar Pradesh where the accent is similar to that of the one in Haryana, and this character is from Western Uttar Pradesh. The way they speak is very different. Faisal of Gangs of Wasseypur was emotional, this character is not, this is a character Faisal would have abused," Nawazuddin said. Babumoshai Bandookbaaz stars Bidita Bag opposite Nawaz. She got the role after Chitrangada Singh opted out of the film. Bidita said, "I was waiting to work with him. I waited for an opportunity where I could give an impressive performance. Working with Nawaz sir was a bonus. I am thankful to Chitrangada Singh for leaving this role." According to reports, Chitrangada Singh walked out of the film when she heard about the intimate scenes in it but Nawaz denied this, saying she had issues with the script of the film.

In the film, Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays a contract killer in Uttar Pradesh who, he quips, works for Yamraj (God of Death). He says he is like the desi James Bond. "When we were learning acting in NSD (National School of Drama) we used to watch a lot of Bond movies. There were phases, so one year we would watch only Al Pacino movies, and act like him, then following year some other actor. We did that then stopped because our teacher told us this is wrong. She said you might get another role and shades of all this will show in it. But I used to be very impressed with Bond. I have used gestures of him in my films. This character is desi Bond," he said.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui was last seen in Sridevi's MOM, in which he played a detective and got rave reviews for his performance. Babumoshai Bandookbaz is directed by Kushan Nandy and releases on August 25.