Born and brought up in a small town in UP,Nawazuddin Siddiqui hailed from a family who struggled to make ends meet.

After picking up a handful of odd jobs including working at a chemist and as a watchman , he finally enrolled in the National School of Drama and ever since there has been no looking back.

With films like Sarfarosh, Black Friday and Peepli Live he established himself a "dark horse to watch out for" . Later films like Kahaani and Gangs of Wasseypur acted as a turning point in his career .

The bigwigs too started taking notice and Nawazuddin then became an integral part of big ticket commercial films like Talaash, Badlapur, Lunchbox, Kick, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and Raees.

Such was the impact the powerhouse star made, that even the biggest magazines took major interest in his story - There was no arguing that his was a talent that could not be dismissed.

The "gullyboy" turned into a "posterboy" overnight with magazines like GQ, Forbes and Society covering his underdog story.

While the GQ Luxury Issue touted him "India's Finest Actor" , Society Magazine covered his journey to the big league and Forbes glorified his inspiring story in a special cover titled "The Importance of Being Nawazuddin Siddiqui".