Nasseruddin Shah stayed in the village for his character, ‘I thought I would live in the hut…’

MUMBAI : Before being cast in Shyam Bengal’s iconic film Manthan, the actor Naseeruddin Shah was featured in another legendary movie by the director, Nishant. In a recent interview, Shah revealed an interesting incident from the sets of Nishant, where he also mentioned how most of the lead actors in Nishant became a star after the release of the film, while he struggled to find work.

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Speaking to an entertainment portal the actor shared how he was left tensed after the success of Nishant did not result in any work for him. He said, “Nishant performed well at the box office and everybody who starred in it became a star. Shabana Azmi was a star, Smita Patil became a star, Girish Karnad started doing lead roles, Amrish Puri started playing villain roles… everybody got work, the only guy who didn’t get work was me. I got a handful of good reviews but that’s about it. I was twiddling my thumbs and thinking what I did wrong but I was very proud of my performance in Nishant.”

Shah believes in method acting and hence he went to stay in a village where he packed his bags to live in a hut to get into the character’s skin. However, an unwanted guest cut this stay short.

Following the same, he said, “We were at the village for a little over a month. We all lived there in the village, some of the cast lived in Rajkot. The central actors lived in the village and I was into the method acting thing. I thought I would live in the hut which was occupied by my character. I took my bedding and I went there. Shyam told me, ‘Don’t be mad,’ but I was committed, I wanted to become that character. But while I was spreading out my bedding, I saw this beautiful black scorpion and I packed it all up, thinking to hell with method acting I am going to stay where the other cast is staying.”

Nishant focused on the power of rural citizens, and also on the sexual exploitation against women. The film won the 1977 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.

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CREDIT: indianexpress