Nawazuddin Siddiqui has mostly been known as a media-shy person in his years in the film industry. He has mostly stayed away from the limelight apart from his film promotions, and as far as his personal life is concerned, we know nearly next to nothing.
He is married to Anjali Siddiqui, and the couple have two children together. Their daughter, Shora, is the older kid, and son Yaani is the younger. Apart from some very basic and sketchy facts, Nawazuddin's personal life has been quite closely guarded.
His memoir, An Ordinary Life, has the Babumoshai Bandookbaaz actor baring his heart. From his relationship with Miss Lovely co-star Niharika Singh to a one-night stand with a waitress in New York, Siddiqui's life is nothing short of an entertainer.
Here are five explosive revelations from Nawazuddin's book:
1. RELATIONSHIP WITH NIHARIKA SINGH
During the shoot of Miss Lovely, Nawazuddin once invited Niharika Singh to his house to cheer her up. He cooked mutton curry for her, which he later realised, was inedible. But Niharika not only did not criticise it, she invited Nawazuddin over to her place to reciprocate the mutton-curry gesture. When Nawaz reached her house, and she opened the door, he was stunned to see innumerable tiny candles glittering all over the place. "She (Niharika) wore soft faux fur, looking devastatingly gorgeous, her beauty illuminated even more in the candlelight," says his book. Calling himself a 'village bumpkin', Siddiqui describes the rest of the night. He proceeded to 'scoop her up in his 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."
2. ONE-NIGHT STAND WITH A WAITRESS IN NEW YORK
Nawazuddin was at a cafe in SoHo (South of Houston street area in New York) when a waitress wouldn't take her eyes off him. After staring at him for several minutes, the woman asked him if he was an actor. Nawaz replied in the affirmative and then asked her which of his films she had seen. 'Lunchbox!' came her answer. They got to talking and in his typical elusive style, Nawaz describes the rest of the night, "let's just say what happens in New York stays in New York, at least in my case. As you can probably guess from the titles of the films, this is a memory that happened way down the line when I had tasted the sweet nectar of success."
3. WANTED TO MARRY SUZANNE
Nawazuddin's book gives a glimpse of his once-serious relationship with a Jewish girl called Suzanne. She was from New Jersey, and came to Mumbai and was living with Nawaz for some time. She kept extending her visa every few months, says Nawaz in the book. He nearly decided to marry her and wanted to propose to her. But she was scared of marriage since the time coincided with her brother's divorce. "Without telling her, I dropped the idea of marriage altogether. 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," says Nawaz in the book.
4. TWO-TIMING NIHARIKA SINGH
Suzanne kept mailing Nawaz long after she left for New York. By this time, the shooting of Miss Lovely had begun and Siddiqui was in a relationship with Niharika Singh. Nawaz says in his book that he didn't have the courage to reply to Suzanne's emails. And then all hell broke loose. While he was checking his mails one day, Niharika happened to spot an email from Suzanne. Niharika took on the task of clarifying that Nawaz's relationship with Suzanne was over. "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 like: 'What happened, Nawaz? Please tell me,Nawaz! . . . I am crying, Nawaz! Tell me, please.' It was absolutely awful. I simply could not endure it! It was as if she was screaming, crying out aloud helplessly in unbearable pain. It was apparent that the emails had some sort of a multiple personality disorder. 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. Somebody else is with you,' she wrote back," Nawazuddin describes. Soon, Niharika made sure that he snapped all correspondence with Suzanne.
5. CONTEMPLATING SUICIDE AFTER A BREAK-UP
It was right after his break-up with Sunita, his first girlfriend, that Nawazuddin wanted to end his life. He says in the book, "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 sense prevailed and a 'metaphorical slap' shook him out of his reverie. He decided at that point that he would never be emotional in any relationship. And never again was he 'that vulnerable, not even with my wife'.
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