Despite being a Muslim, Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s convincing portrayal of the late controversial Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray in his latest release has had fans and critics question his political inclinations.

However, junking all speculations, Siddiqui said, “An actor doesn’t have his own ideology. Whenever I play a role, I have to believe in the ideology and philosophy of the character. Without understanding his ideology, I cannot do justice to the character. Once the task is done, I step out of the character and move ahead to step into another character and his ideology.”

He adds that he may do political films but has no intention of joining politics ever. “I will never join politics, not even in future. I am an artist and will continue to be an artist all my life,” he said.

On the lukewarm response that Manto—the 2018 Nandita Das film that had him in the titular role—got at the box office, he said, “We do not want to see a negative trait in the lead character. Maybe Manto’s habits or the end of the film wasn’t acceptable to the audience. May be the viewers wanted to see a winning end.

“The films have spoiled us. We only want to see victory at the end. I did another film Raman Raghav 2.0 but it did not leave the desired impact on the minds of the audience probably because of the negative protagonist.”

Though he may have played gangster/grey roles in several films but Siddiqui feels he has been versatile in his choices. “I have played many positive roles like the ones in Freaky Ali, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Mom. They are not negative roles. They are grey-shade characters. Raman Raghav was a grey character. Negative characters used to exist in earlier films when the villains only had negative qualities. I haven’t played a character with not even a single positive trait. I like playing such characters and they look good on screen.

“Why don’t you ask other actors that why don’t they play negative roles? Our stars play only positive roles for over 20- 30 years. Why don’t you ask the stars, whom you and I are a fan of, play only one kind of role throughout their lives?” he added.