Referring to his Serious Men co-star Indira Tiwari, Nawazuddin told Bollywood Hungama, “Sudhir saab has immense knowledge about cinema, and his thought process is very practical. He cast her as the heroine, and I can guarantee you that there is so much racism in our industry, I will be very happy if she is cast as the lead again. Sudhir Mishra did it, but what about the head honchos in charge? More than nepotism, we have a racism problem.”

Indira Tiwari played Nawazuddin’s onscreen wife in Sudhir Mishra’s Serious Men that released on Netflix last year.

Speaking about his own struggle, Nawazuddin Siddiqui said, “I fought against it for many years, and I hope that dark-skinned actresses are made heroines. It’s very important. I’m not even talking about skin colour. There is a bias that exists in the industry which needs to end for better films to be made. I was rejected for many years only because I’m short and I look a certain way, although I can’t complain now. But there are so many other great actors who fall prey to this kind of bias.”

Nawazuddin recently earned an International Emmy Awards 2021 nomination in the Best Performance by an Actor category for Serious Men.