Nawazuddin Siddiqui's visit to his village, the hamlet of Budhana in Muzaffarnagar , has turned out to be unusually unpleasant. Mukesh Sharma, the Shiv Sena's Muzaffarnagar vice president, told us, "In the 50-60 year history of the Budhana Ramlila, no Muslim artist has set foot on the stage. Damodar Sharma, president of Budhana's Ramlila Committee, says, "The committee wasn't informed in time about Nawazuddin playing Mareech. It must have been a decision by the organisers not to stage the Ramlila, because there was no insistence or pressure from our side. "Before this unfortunate development, Nawaz had told Delhi Times that acting in Budhana's Ramlila had been a childhood dream for him.

Source: Times of India October 06, 2016 10:05 UTC