Q. You will be seen playing India’s Mountain Man in Ketan Mehta’s next, which is a biopic, and the trailer has received an overwhelming response. What attracted you to the story?
A. For 22 years, a person keeps hammering away at a mountain to carve out a road through it. And when you hear such a motivational story, you want to share it with the world, especially in today’s age when you have only a handful of inspirational figures to look up to. Dashrath Manjhi’s lifestory is one that will spur you on to strive for the impossible. It was a challenging role, both physically and mentally. We shot at real locations and the villagers (people in Manjhi’s native place, Gehlaur, in Gaya) helped me understand the hero that Manjhi was. Just standing atop the mountain there used to motivate me. Every time I dressed up as Manjhi for a shot, they would shout out ‘baba, baba’ and when I would get out of that avatar, I would go unnoticed. The response to the film’s trailer has been completely unexpected. I am grateful to everyone who has appreciated it and confident about the film all the more.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Pic/Sayed Sameer Abedi