Nawaz,lately you have been spending a lot of time in your hometown?
Jee, Sir. Yahan pe bahot sukoon hai. The one good thing that the Covid pandemic gave me was time away from the shor-sharaaba and bhaag-daud of the city. In my hometown Budhana everything is quiet, reposeful. I can’t describe to you the feeling of peace that descends when I come here. You will have to come and experience it yourself.
You have spent a lot of time in Budhana?
Yes, since lockdown.Mumbai mein kaam thapp(standstill) hogaya, toh main ghar aa gaya. Over here I thought I’d spend some time with my mother and then return. But since no work was happening in Mumbai I stayed on.Dekhte dekhte saal nikal gaya. I realized how happy I was at home.
Would you consider working from Budhana?
Why not? In fact, work-at-home is the new normal. As long as I am not shooting I can do everything from here, story session,narrations on Zoom. Even dubbing can be done from here.
So what are you , a farmer or an actor?
Actor by profession, Lekin dil se main kissan hoon(I am farmer at heart). I love to be close to the zameen. I am the happiest when working on the land.When I am in Budhana I even sleep on my farmland.I am the happiest when I am farming.
What about acting?
It is equally important to me. Farming and acting come naturally to me. Baqi sab dikhawa hai. I’ve signed quite a few interesting projects lately.
What do you think of the rapid growth of the OTT platform in the last two years?
I believed in the OTT platform from long before. My Scared Games was one of the first big successes on the Indian digital platform. Tabhi main samjh gaya. This platform is here to stay. But it can’t replace the cinema bigscreen experience. Both the platforms have their individual space.
