National Award Winning actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui is happy that the audience has finally accepted him in a lead role with the success of his latest film “Manjhi: The Mountain Man” and is all over the moon these days with all the praises from the audience.

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.”

In the upcoming releases for the actor; “Raees” will see the actor sharing screen space with Shah Rukh for the first time. Nawazuddin, who has earlier worked with both Aamir and Salman Khan, is all praise for the “Chennai Express” star. “First schedule is complete. I shot with Shah Rukh and I had an amazing experience working with him. I really enjoyed shooting with him.” When asked to comment on the reports that he is playing Pakistani actress Mahira Khan’s husband in the film and his character has grey shades, Nawazuddin said, “I haven’t heard of any such thing. I play a cop in the film. I can’t divulge much about the movie.”

Another movie in production “Haramkhor” tells a sensitive tale of a relationship between a teacher (Nawazuddin) and his student (Shweta) based on an incident from Shlok’s life. “The film is based on reality. Shlok has a great command over story, how teachers and students behave… because this incident happened in his life. He has witnessed something like this and I am very happy that I am bringing it on screen,” Nawazuddin said.

The actor who was all present yesterday, September 2, at a suburban hotel in Mumbai at the film’s success bash, was asked by media about his upcoming project with Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan.

The talented actor said, “We haven’t started the project yet. It is in its premature stage. But I will soon be working with Mr. Bachchan.”