Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui apologises for hurting sentiments of exes, withdraws memoir

Mumbai: Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui on Monday issued an apology for "hurting the sentiments" of women whose names he had mentioned in his memoir allegedly without their consent and has decided to withdraw the book.

The 43-year-old actor took to Twitter in the wake of the controversy surrounding his autobiography, 'An Ordinary Life', co-written by Rituparna Chatterjee, in which he detailed his relationships and flings with former Miss India Niharika Singh and actor Sunita Rajwar.

"I'm apologising to everyone whose sentiments are hurt because of the chaos around my memoir 'An Ordinary Life'. I hereby regret and decide to withdraw my book," he tweeted.

I m apologising 2 every1 who's sentiments r hurt bcz of d chaos around my memoir #AnOrdinaryLife
I hereby regret & decide 2 withdraw my book — Nawazuddin Siddiqui (@Nawazuddin_S) October 30, 2017

A spokesperson from the publisher Penguin Random House has confirmed that they were withdrawing the book, PTI reported.

The critically-acclaimed actor drew a lot of flak for revealing personal details about his "passionate" affair with his "Miss Lovely" co-star Niharika.

Excerpts from the book started doing the rounds on October 23 and Niharika issued a statement a day later slamming Nawaz for "exploiting and disrespecting" a woman to sell his autobiography.

"Nawaz and I had a brief relationship in 2009 during the making of `Miss Lovely` that lasted less than a few months. So today, when he paints me as a woman in fur enticing him into her bedroom with candles, or desperately calling him and mailing other women on his behalf, I can only laugh. He obviously wants to sell his book and it would appear that he is willing to exploit and disrespect a woman just to do so," she said.

While Rajwar took to Facebook to blast the actor for spreading lies and claiming that she dumped him for his "poor status".

"I did not dump you for your poor status but for your poor thinking," Rajwar said, adding she was poorer than the actor at that time and their relationship did go beyond a play on which they worked together.

(With Agency inputs)