Known for doing offbeat roles, Nawazuddin Siddiqui thinks it is the ‘Bollywood hero’ who becomes stereotypical with time, but the actors do not. The actor has done a number of roles where he has challenged himself from time to time. From drama to action, thriller to comedy and even grey roles, he has done every role with utmost ease and brilliance. In an interview with a leading daily, Nawaz talked about the evolution of Indian films, lack of audience in theatres as well as his methods and aspirations as an actor.

“I think only the heroes can become stereotypical, not actors. It is the concept of the hero in our films that you and I have been seeing for the last 60 years. The Bollywood hero who sings and dances with a heroine by his side, fights but still manages to look good after a beating– has become a stereotype. An actor can never become a typecast,” said Siddiqui, who was in the city to attend the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet.

The actor, who will be seen playing the enigmatic author Saadat Hasan Manto in his next film, believes Bollywood has not evolved much in making thought-provoking cinema. He further said, “It is not that parallel or content based films are a new thing in the industry. I don’t think much has changed here. Even earlier, there were great films made by directors like Tapan Sinha and Gautam Ghose. I do not find any massive improvement in terms of filmmaking in Bollywood. I think we still have a long way to go.”

He continued saying, “I think it’s important for an actor to try out characters with different dimensions. I’ve done intense films but I have also done films like Freaky Ali and Lunchbox which were pretty light-hearted.”

The Gangs Of Wasseypur actor has not limited himself only to films but he has already stepped in the world of web as well. Where most of the filmmakers and actors are finding it difficult to deal with the web world, Nawaz, on the other hand, has done two series on two video streaming giants (Amazon Prime and Netflix).