Mumbai

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is being universally applauded for his role in the new Sudhir Mishra directorial, Serious Men, but the actor surprises you by saying he has not read the book on which the film is based on.

Mishra's film is an adaptation of Manu Joseph's book of the same name. It narrates the tale of an underachiever who tries to make it big in Mumbai after discovering that his child could be a boy genius.

"It was a beautiful narration with (scriptwriter) Bhavesh (Mandalia) and Sudhir sir, but what I hadn't realised at the time was that it is also a novel by the renowned Manu Joseph. Right then, I decided to start reading it but as you know, my command over the (English) language isn't very strong," Nawazuddin said.

"So I sat with a dictionary and completed three pages in two hours and then just gave up! The script was my saviour throughout the shoot," he added.

The Netflix film also features Aakshath Das, Shweta Basu Prasad and Nassar, and introduces Indira Tiwari.