Nawazuddin Siddiqui CRITICISES Bollywood: 'Humari industry chor rahi hai…'

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, currently promoting his new film Costao, recently discussed the state of Bollywood in an interview with Puja Talwar on YouTube. He expressed concerns about the industry's creative direction, noting a lack of original ideas and an over-reliance on copying from other sources. This, according to Siddiqui, is contributing to a slowdown in creative output.

During the promotion of his new film, Nawazuddin Siddiqui commented on the growing insecurity within Bollywood. He observed that the industry is increasingly recycling ideas, with successful concepts being repeatedly replicated. This trend, according to Siddiqui, reflects a lack of confidence in pursuing fresh, original content.

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, waise yeh creativeruptcy hogaya. Kangaliyat hai bohut zayada. Shuru se humari industry chor rahi hai. Humne gaane chori kiye, story chori ki (In our industry, the same ideas are used again and again for years—people only stop when the audience gets bored. Insecurity has grown a lot. If one formula works, everyone keeps using it and overdoing it. What’s worse is that now they keep making part 2, 3, and even 4. It’s like creative bankruptcy, just like financial bankruptcy. There’s a big lack of creativity. From the start, our industry has been copying—we’ve stolen songs and stories)

- Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Nawazuddin Siddiqui attributed the perceived lack of creativity in Bollywood to the prevalence of copied content. He highlighted the tendency of the industry to draw inspiration, and at times directly replicate scenes, from South Indian cinema and other popular films. This practice, according to Siddiqui, stifles originality and contributes to a creative stagnation. “Ab jo chor hote hain, woh 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? “How can thieves be creative? We’ve copied from the South, from here, and from there. Even some popular films have scenes that were copied. It’s become so normal that no one questions it anymore).