‘Happy that people have accepted me as solo hero’

<g data-gr-id="40">Actor Nawaz</g>uddin Siddiqui is happy that the audience has finally accepted him as a solo hero with the success of his latest film Manjhi: The Mountain Man. The film was based on the life of Dashrath Manjhi, a poor labourer in Gehlaur village (Bihar), who carved a path through a mountain with only a hammer and chisel in his wife’s memory.

Though the film leaked online just days before the release, Nawaz said people still turned up to watch it in theatres.

“It feels really nice to get a central character in a film. But in our industry, there is a belief that your solo lead films should register well at the box-office. The film leaked and CDs were sold and still the movie made good enough money at the box-office. “It was also declared tax-free in 5-6 states. So, we benefitted a lot. It is a very nice feeling that people are accepting me as a solo hero,” the actor told a <g data-gr-id="32">media</g> person. Nawazuddin’s upcoming projects include superstar Shah Rukh Khan-<g data-gr-id="34">starrer</g> <g data-gr-id="35">Raees</g> and Haramkhor opposite actress Shweta Tripathi.