Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui has made bold comments about the state of the industry during a recent interview, calling out its growing habit of copying ideas and rehashing old formulas. While discussing the ongoing creative stagnation, he shed light on the lack of originality in Bollywood, describing it as a place where creativity has taken a backseat.
Bollywood’s struggle with creativity
During an interview with Puja Talwar for her YouTube channel, the ‘Gangs of Wasseypur‘ actor spoke about the creative shortcomings in Bollywood and the industry’s growing sense of insecurity. He stated, “In our industry, the same thing is repeated for five years straight — then, when people get bored, they finally let it go. Actually insecurity bohut badh gayi hai. Unko lagta hai ek formula chal raha hai toh usse chala lo, ghiso isko. Aur usse bhi pathetic yeh hogaya ki yeh 2, 3, 4 (sequels) hone lag gaya. Kahin na kahin jaise bankruptcy hoti hai, vaise yeh creativeruptcy hogaya. Kangaliyat hai bohut zayada” (“Actually, insecurity has increased a lot. They feel that if a formula is working, they should keep milking it, overdo it. And what’s even more pathetic is that now there are 2, 3, 4 (sequels) being made. It’s creative bankruptcy, just like financial bankruptcy. There’s a lot of creative poverty.”).
The plagiarism culture in Bollywood
Nawaz also took aim at Bollywood’s culture of borrowing ideas, particularly from other industries. “Ab jo chor hote hain, voh kahan se creative ho sakte hain. Humne south se churaya, kabhi yahan se churaya, kabhi wahan se churaya. Even some cult-films which became hits, unke scenes bhi chori kare hue hain. Isko itna normalise kardiya gaya ki chori hai toh kya hua? (Now, how can thieves be creative? We’ve stolen from the South, sometimes from here, sometimes from there. Even some cult films that became hits have scenes that were copied. This has been so normalised that it’s like — so what if it’s stolen?). Earlier, they used to hand over a video and say, ‘This is the film we want to make.’ They’d watch that and just replicate it here. What can you expect from an industry like this? What kind of actors will come in? They’ll be of the same kind. And then actors and directors start quitting — like Anurag Kashyap, who was bringing in good work.”
Nawazuddin’s recent work
At present, Nawaz is busy promoting his new OTT movie ‘Costao’, where he plays the role of Costao Fernandes, a Goa customs officer. His character sacrifices everything to dismantle a major gold smuggling operation.
