'Raman Raghav' was mentally draining: Nawazuddin

Mumbai, May 9 () Known to push himself while playingdifferent characters, Nawazuddin Siddiqui says his role in"Raman Raghav 2.0" was so demanding that he was reciting themovie's dialogues while being half-conscious in a hospitalonce. Raman Raghav, also known as Psycho Raman, was apsychopathic serial killer who terrorised the streets ofMumbai in the mid-1960s. Directed by Anurag Kashyap, the thriller stars Nawazuddinin the role of the notorious serial killer. "We shot the film for about 20 days. Once during shoot, Igot unwell and was taken to a hospital. I was told later thateven while I was almost half-unconscious in the hospital, Iwas repeating my dialogues from the film," Nawazuddin told. The "Manjhi: The Mountain Man" star said he had never experienced something like this before when an on-screen character of his disturbed him so deeply. "My wife came and saw me like that and asked Anurag whatwas he making me do. Something like this, to this extent,never happened with me. This role was mentally draining forme.""Raman Raghav 2.0" marks the return of Kashyap and the 41-year-old actor who have worked together in "Black Friday" and the two-part crime saga "Gangs of Wasseypur". For the role of a serial killer, Nawazuddin had tounderstand the psyche of such people, who, as he says, "have adifferent mindset." "The first thing that I had to understand was that thecharacter comes from a different world, he does not think likeyou and I. People like these, especially Raman Raghav have adifferent mindset, they follow their own logic of doingthings. "It is not easy for us to even think of what he used todo so easily. I had to get under the skin of the character,understand him completely and then portray it convincingly onscreen. It was really tough.""Raman Raghav 2.0", which also stars Vicky Kaushal willbe showcased at Cannes' Directors Fortnight section. Thefestival will open on May 11. JUR DKNDS