The pay-disparity debate, which kicked off in Hollywood, eventually made its way to Bollywood, too. Many pointed out that besides the number of hours spent working on the set, the remuneration of an actor also depends on the footfall they guarantee during the opening weekend of a film. Giving her take on the debate, Huma Qureshi says, “I believe in equal pay for equal work. If two people are doing the same amount of work, and if they have the same standing at the box office, they should be paid equally. I don’t believe that I should be paid more or less only because I am a woman. Feminism doesn’t mean being toxic and angry. It doesn’t mean pulling other people down. It means you believe in equality for both genders. A feminist is someone who enables and empowers other women. It doesn’t mean saying that only women are the best and everyone is inferior to them. Of late, I think there is a very toxic model of feminism that has been floated around in the market, which is something I don’t stand for.”

The Badlapur actress, who will complete a decade in the industry next year, adds, “I believe we can have a world where there are equal opportunities for everyone and equal pay for equal work. A world where a film’s content demands a certain kind of budget and not that if it has a woman, it should get a lesser budget and vice versa. I am not saying this is the world that exists, but it is possible.”

While B-Town actors turned producers a while ago, it’s only recently that the leading ladies, too, have turned towards production. Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Richa Chadha and Alia Bhatt are among Huma’s contemporaries who have taken the plunge. Does she plan to follow suit? “Let me put it this way, till the day I die, I will always be working,” she says, adding, “I don’t know in what capacity, but I will always be a part of films — my first love.”

In her last conversation with BT, the actress had mentioned that she had put pen to paper during the pandemic. While she is reluctant to reveal details about it, she shares, “Yes, there is something I have written, but it’s not a film, that’s all I can say at the moment.”