Nawazuddin Siddiqui swallows his words

When a book garners the interest of the public, it is usually a cause to rejoice for the author. However, Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s memoir, An Ordinary Life, which he co-authored with Rituparna Chatterjee, has been in the public eye for all the wrong reasons.

The actor has been facing flak from all quarters thanks to certain leaked excerpts from his book. His Miss Lovely co-star Niharika Singh landed him in legal trouble when she alleged that Nawaz failed to take her consent when writing about their affair. She, along with the actor’s first girlfriend Sunita Rajwar, claimed that the content currently in public domain was full of lies.

Under fire from all sides, Nawazuddin put up a statement on Twitter on Monday, apologising for hurting peoples’ sentiments and announcing that he is recalling his book. The tweet said, “I m apologising 2 every1 who’s sentiments r hurt bcz of d chaos around my memoir #AnOrdinaryLife I hereby regret & decide 2 withdraw my book (sic),” the co-author Tweeted.

Before the publication of the book Nawaz had said, “I’ve been as honest in my memoirs as I could be. I haven’t hidden anything.  In fact some people in my life are going to be deeply offended when they read what I have to say. To those who are hurt by my memoirs I want to say sorry from now. But I had no choice. Either I told my story with utmost honesty or not tell it at all. No point in lies and half-truths if you want to tell your story to the world.”

And it looks like the “truth” has not been appreciated.

While Nawaz has remained unavailable for comment after his tweet, his advocate Rizwan Siddiqui released a statement on his behalf. “As the memoir of my client has inadvertently hurt the sensibilities of some people, he therefore does not wish to offend any person who is or has been close to him at one point in time. My client is therefore, in all fairness withdrawing the said memoir,” stated the lawyer.

Varun Tanwar, senior marketing manager at Penguin Random House, further corroborated this fact. “Yes, we are recalling the books. Though there is no official statement from Penguin as of yet, it is indeed a fact that we have stopped printing of the book. We are also recalling those books that have been sent out to bookstores,” he said, adding that there is nothing that can be done about the copies that have been sold already. However, he asserted that every other copy would be taken back.

Rizwan has been fighting fires on multiple quarters on behalf of his client, and had to deal with a third party complaint from advocate Gaurav Gulati, to the National Commission for Women. The advocate accused Nawaz of adultery.

The official letter that Rizwan sent to Gaurav included a mention of the fact that Niharika herself had not charged her former co-star and paramour with anything other than defamation. Rizwan not only accused Gaurav of basing his “hasty” allegations on “ridiculous assumptions and presumptions” but also accused him of “seeking publicity for yourself at the cost of my client’s name.”

“The baseless personal complaint made by an advocate to the chairman of National Commission for Women has been dealt with the contempt it deserved. The said unwarranted complaint made the Advocate as a third party was largely based on assumptions and presumptions. He has been given 48 hours to withdraw his frivolous and untenable complaint, which appears to have been made only to gain publicity,” the lawyer stated confidently.

While the actor has help from many an external quarter, the solid advice to recall the book and apologise came from his wife Anjali, says a source in the know. “He never realised his words would be taken so badly by the women he has written about. But when he did realise the repercussions Anjali reminded him that correcting the damage was not impossible. She suggested he apologise and withdraw the book. And he did,” said the source.

— With inputs from Subhash K. Jha