Nawazuddin to take a break, doesn't want burnout

Dismayed by how veteran actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar has aged, the much in-demand Nawazuddin Siddiqui has decided to take a sabbatical after he finishes his current assignment.

Nawazuddin, who suddenly finds himself inundated with quality work, will take a few months break as soon as he wraps up shooting for Buddhadeb Dasgupta's "Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa".

"I waited for 11 years to get good work. Now when I am finally getting the kind of work that I wanted with directors I dreamt of working with all my life, I don't want to mess up my career by burning myself out," said the actor who became big after "Kahaani" and "Gangs of Wasseypur".

"I have been working non-stop and I really need to slow down. I've to take a pause to recharge my batteries. So after I complete Buddhadeb Dasgupta's film, which starts in Kolkata from March 22 and goes on at a stretch for 40 days, I'll be taking time off," he added.

Apparently, the need to conserve his energies came to Nawazuddin while shooting with veteran Sadashiv Amrapukar for Dibakar Bannerjee's short film that will be a part of "Bombay Talkies".

He said: "I was dismayed to see how old he seemed although he's just 57-58. We actors tend to give too much of ourselves. And that's fine. But somewhere we also need to renew our creative energies from time to time."

It would be a kind of home coming for Nawazuddin when he starts shooting for "Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa" in Kolkata.

"Actually it was that film ('Kahaani'), which brought me out of my 11-year-old struggle to be noticed. So I consider Kolkata to be lucky," said the actor.

He would be leaving for Kolkata later this month to look around and get a hang of his character's milieu.

"I wanted to work with Buddadeb Dasgupta from the time I saw his film 'Tahader Katha'. It was visually stunning. And also, this brilliant director returns to Hindi cinema for the first time since he made 'Andhi Gali'. So I had no choice but to say yes," he said.

At the moment Nawazuddin finds himself so busy he is unable to devote time to promoting his new film "Aatma", while his co-star Bipasha Basu has started promoting the film.

"I will be starting my promotion soon. I haven't been able to do so until now," said the actor.