Nawaz, who is extremely observant of people, often infuses striking quirks, traits of people around him into his screen characters. His signature style of greeting everyone with ‘Hello Sir’ in The Lunchbox was borrowed from a friend. His evil, funny laugh from Kick was inspired by Manoj Bajpayee’s character in Aks. “Manoj Bajpayee’s laugh was in my mind while shooting the film and I decided to include it in my character and it worked,” revealed the actor later on. The actor has now sought inspiration from the dashing Vinod Khanna for his next.
Nawaz spoke to us from London, where he is shooting for Heropanti 2 with Tiger Shroff, which is being directed by Ahmed Khan. While the actor stayed tight-lipped about his character in the film, he shared an interesting detail. “I observe interesting people a lot aur woh dimaag mein reh jaata hai,” he said, adding, “For instance, the energy is slightly different, but I have tried to replicate Vinod Khanna’s walk in Heropanti 2. I loved him as an actor and also his persona and style. Unka ek alag hi swag tha. His walk had a slight feminine grace. Usi movement ko maine exaggerate kiya hai. Ahmed bhai and I discussed it and decided to go ahead with it.”
On the work front, Nawaz is also excited about his film No Land’s Man getting global recognition. The film, helmed by Bangladeshi director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, deals with hate crime and discrimination. It has been shortlisted to compete for the prestigious Kim Jiseok Award at the upcoming 26th Busan International Film Festival. Talking about the film, the actor says, “Main kaun hoon and where do I belong is a relevant question today. We are territorial. Nature ne aapko ek planet diya. Insaan ne apni apni jagah bana di. Har koi dusre ke ilaake ko hadapne ke koshish mein hai. This desire for more is never-ending. The film deals with this issue.”
