Nawazuddin Siddiqui & Anurag Kashyap Movies Together List — 8 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s account for 75% of everything they made together. The 2000s belonged to Dev.D; the 2020s to Haddi. Nawazuddin Siddiqui acted in every film; Anurag Kashyap directed all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Nawazuddin was a total unknown when Anurag cast him in Dev.D (2009) — he had just a few lines as a rickshaw driver. Anurag later admitted he only gave him that role because he needed a 'real face' and Nawaz was the cheapest actor he could find that day.
• On Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), Anurag deliberately didn't give Nawaz a full script for his character Faizal. He just told him the backstory and let him improvise every single scene. Nawaz later said that freedom terrified him but also gave him his most iconic role.
• Their partnership directly launched the career of Richa Chadha. Anurag cast her as Nagma in Gangs of Wasseypur after Nawaz insisted she audition — he had worked with her in a theater workshop and told Anurag she'd steal every scene. She did.
• During the shoot of Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), Nawaz and Anurag had a massive fight on set — Nawaz felt Anurag was pushing him too hard for a brutal rape scene. They didn't speak for three days. Then Anurag sent him a bottle of Old Monk with a note: 'Finish this. Then we talk.' They patched up that night.
• Anurag Kashyap once said about Nawaz: 'He is the only actor who can make me rewrite a scene on the spot. He'll look at the dialogue and say, 'Yeh toh main bol nahi sakta' — and then he'll say something better. I trust his instinct more than my own writing.'
• In Bombay Talkies (2013), Anurag directed Nawaz in a short film about a closeted gay man. Nawaz had never played a queer character before. Anurag made him rehearse the same scene 47 times in one day — not for perfection, but to break his 'macho' acting habits. Nawaz later called it 'acting boot camp.'