Nawazuddin Siddiqui is one of his generation’s most well-known actors. The actor has progressed from bit parts and extras to leading roles in award-winning films and commercial blockbusters over the course of his long career. As he celebrates his birthday—appropriately at the Cannes Film Festival—a look back at when the actor revealed how his immersive acting process can be a stumbling block at times.

In his biopic Manto, Nawazuddin played the controversial Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto. Nawazuddin attempted to imbibe Manto’s qualities and attributes in order to get into the skin of his character. In a previous interview, the actor admitted that this backfired because he became too blunt and truthful in his real life and paid the price. Around the time of the film’s release, Nawazuddin was involved in a number of controversies, the majority of which stemmed from his tell-all memoir.

“You are not a computer,” he told The Times of India in an interview. So playing a character like Manto has an effect on you, and you must try to break free from it because you must move on to the next character, the next project, where you must begin from scratch. For the next 10-12 days after the shoot, I was still in the same emotional state. ‘This character needs to get out of my head soon, or else it will be bad for me,’ I told Nandita (Das, the director). Because I had become too honest and truthful at the time. Us waqt itna zyada sach bolne laga tha ki maine apni band bajwa li

The actor is currently in Cannes as part of an Indian delegation led by Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur, where he walked the red carpet. “Representing India is always special,” Nawazuddin told Hindustan Times about his birthday celebrations in Cannes. It doesn’t matter if it’s my birthday or another day. Because Cannes is held around the same time every year, I’ve spent five to six of my birthdays there. I am not one of those people who celebrates birthdays. It’s like any other day.”