Nawazuddin Siddiqui He faced the tough road to fame long before he found the spotlight. Now famous for his strong acting, his early days in Mumbai were filled with doubts, hard work and struggle for survival. Before the big break of ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, life was very different from what it is today. He came to the city with little money, worked as a supervisor and continued to do theater to improve his skills while waiting for film roles.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui on Disappearing Confidence Amid Rejection
In an April 2026 show on Radio Nasha, the actor spoke about the great emotional impact of his days of struggle. Seeing how endless defeats chipped away at his record, he admitted, “In the beginning, you have a lot of confidence and passion. But gradually, after facing repeated struggles, your confidence starts to disappear. You start doubting yourself, whether what you learned was wrong or not, and that’s why you don’t get a job.“
Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s decade of bad luck
He recounted a long stretch where chances always felt so close but out of reach, disappearing at the last hurdle. “I’ve seen that mental state where I started to doubt myself, I felt inadequate. I feel like you’ve been hit by bad luck, like every opportunity slips away when you’re about to get it. For almost 10 years, I felt like I was unlucky. Every time a great opportunity came, it suddenly slipped away.“
Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s sudden job losses and hidden tears
Siddiqui shared poignant memories to celebrate the potential gigs that were suddenly scrapped. “I would even tell my brother and my friends that I got a job in a movie. But when the shooting dates came, they would fire me – sometimes without even informing me. I often felt like crying halfway through. And I did cry – while I looked around to make sure no one was watching.”Those years brought continuous financial difficulties. Reflecting on the daily scraping, she confessed, “I survived on Parle-G biscuits. Even today, every time I eat Parle-G, it takes me back to Delhi: breakfast, lunch, dinner, it was all Parle-G. Even now, if I eat it, it makes me feel like I have nothing. The taste still hurts.”
The rise of Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s stardom
Even amid tough times, Siddiqui never gave up acting, first breaking through with ‘Black Friday’ and then rising to stardom through ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’. Since then, he has wowed audiences in films including ‘The Lunchbox’, ‘Kick’, ‘In Bajrangi Bhaijaan‘, ‘Raman Raghav 2.0′, ‘Raees’, ‘Mom’ and ‘Manto’. His television credits include the critically acclaimed ‘Sacred Games’ and the international series ‘McMafia’.
