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'What Nawaz did to the ladies was not in good taste'

November 03, 2017 12:55 IST

'He needed to speak to the women he wrote about.

'You can’t just write your version of the honest truth in a relationship.

'Two people are involved and they both need to be aware of what will be put out in public.'

Asha Parekh tells Subhash K Jha why Nawazuddin Siddiqui has erred in his memoir, An Ordinary Life.

IMAGE: Nawazuddin Siddiqui with Niharika Singh in Miss Lovely, which released in 2014.
Nikharika and Nawaz had a brief relationship during the making of the film.
She was shocked at the relationship being made public in Nawaz's memoir and told Rediff.com, "Today, when he paints me as a woman in fur enticing him into her bedroom with candles, or desperately calling him and mailing other women on his behalf, I can only laugh.
"He obviously wants to sell his book and it would appear that he is willing to exploit and disrespect a woman to do so.
"He has chosen to fabricate stories and manipulate a fleeting relationship."

Nawazuddin Siddiqui has withdrawn his autobiography, An Ordinary Life, but veteran actress Asha Parekh, who has written her own memoir, The Hit Girl, feels it’s too late for damage control.

“What Nawaz did to the ladies was not in good taste," she says. "He should have thought of the repercussions before plunging into the book.

"His co-writer (Rituparna Chatterjee) should have also been careful.

"Perhaps Nawazuddin shared all the intimate details of his life with her, but she should have advised him on how to use his experiences in the book.

"This is why I got an experienced Bollywood writer, Khalid Mohamed, on board as he would know where to draw the line, if I ever failed to draw that line myself.”

The veteran actress adds that it makes no sense to bring in an 'outsider' to write a Bollywood biography.

“Nawaz is too new to Bollywood to write a book. He first needed to spend some years in the film industry before writing about his experiences.

"He also needed to speak to the women he wrote about.

"You can’t just write your version of the honest truth in a relationship. Two people are involved and they both need to be aware of what will be put out in public,” says Asha Parekh, who revealed her personal relationship with filmmaker Nasir Hussain in her memoir.

“That was done with the knowledge and consent of the people concerned," she explains.

"See, this is the problem of writing about one’s life. The lives of others also come into the picture.

"What Nawaz should’ve done is to wait for some more years and then gone back into his life.

"By hurting those whom you have been close to, you can’t claim to to be honest. There is a very thin line dividing honesty and insensitivity in confessional writing."

Subhash K Jha