Huma Qureshi

Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; July 1, 2022)

Huma Qureshi recently clocked a decade in Bollywood. She had stepped into the industry with Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 1, which had released in June 2012. Today, even as she’s busy completing movies and shows at breakneck speed, she believes she has learned to strike the perfect work-life balance. In a conversation with BT, she talks about working non-stop and how the narrative for women and women-led stories has changed in the industry in the decade that she has been a part of this field. Excerpts:

The last two years have turned out to be interesting for you career-wise. At a time when there was so much uncertainty around us, you shot for a couple of projects between the two lockdowns. You were seen in Bellbottom and Zac Snyder’s Army Of The Dead and were appreciated for your performance in the web show Maharani. How do you plan to sustain that momentum for the rest of this year?
Opportunities and hopes come at the most unlikely times and from the most unheard of places. The two years, 2020 and 2021, were the pandemic years in public memory. Theatrical releases had virtually stopped and content on the OTT platforms was dictating the entertainment space. In that phase, I was clear that I won’t let this bog me down. I wanted to go out there and put out something great for people to see. When Bellbottom came to me, I eagerly took it up because it was the first film that went on floors post the global slowdown. The part was great, and it was an experience worth the risk we took. Subhash Kapoor’s narration for his web show (Maharani) had blown me away. I was certain that I wanted to do it. We shot it between two lockdowns amid so much uncertainty. What if this was my last piece of work? That thought ignited an entirely different passion in me. It liberated me in so many ways. And that is the thought with which I have surged into 2022. I’m trying out newer things, playing characters that are completely different from who I am.

You recently completed a decade in Bollywood. In these years, you have seldom played the conventional heroine — something that wasn’t the norm when you started out. What do you think helped you get this far?
I just do things that I naturally gravitate towards. At the outset, I didn’t have the luxury of choosing projects, neither was I launched on a grand scale nor have directors chasing me. I went through an entirely different journey where I auditioned to get work, I got replaced on numerous occasions and went through a grind, something that I wear like a badge of honour. I am proud of everything I endured to get this far. All that I have today has been earned with a lot of hard work and patience. It didn’t come to me. If you find my repertoire full of unconventional projects, it’s also because those were the choices I made from all that came my way. It was about choosing a role where I could not really see myself easily. I have never tried playing myself. The greatest compliment for me was to be told that I played an uneducated Bihari housewife like I belonged there, although I am a South Delhi girl. That is the fun of being an actor. I didn’t come here to play a doll. I came here to be an actor. I will do what it takes to play a part effectively. In the last year alone, I have worked with different directors and in content across various genres. Do I love songs and dances? Yes, I do, but I don’t want to do just that. I have a lot more to offer that goes beyond it. I don’t know what the new conventional norms are, but with our choices, if we have been able to redefine how a woman should be seen in a movie, we’re getting somewhere and exploring so many of her other facets.

A decade ago, it was a big deal for a heroine to shoulder a film on her own. Today, plenty of leading ladies, including yourself, are carrying films as well as web shows on their own. That’s a huge transition, don’t you think?
Yes, and it hasn’t come in easily. I can talk for myself. After I worked with Deepa Mehta on the show Leila, my perspective changed in a big way. It was such a turning point. Khoon chakh liya maine! The joy of leading a project is scary and empowering in the same breath. And she gave me that. Deepa made me believe that I can carry an entire show and be in every frame without boring the audience. She made me believe that I had it in me. When an opportunity presents itself, you rise to the occasion. The show opened doors for me to work with Hollywood bigwigs like Zack Snyder. It got me several good projects. Maharani was one of them. I am now leading a lot of stories which have a female perspective. This is Huma Qureshi 2.0. I want to call it that without sounding vain about it. I am not the same person I was back in the day. I am trying to do things differently. As an actor, the more fearless you get, the more this industry and the audience rewards you. I like reading and watching content. A few years ago, people had an issue with the phrase, web-series. I had seen that not only was it brimming with international talent, but it was also gearing up to take India by storm. The writing and the production standards were superlative. These are opportunities that have to be grabbed when they come to you. Doing my first show has hence, been a big turning point. Sometimes, merely doing things you like can have a domino effect on your life. It benefitted me in a big way.

Lastly, the film industry in India is gradually moving towards becoming one cohesive workspace that ropes in talent from film industries across the country. As someone who has worked in two films down South, do you find a change in the manner in which people now perceive actors who work across industries?
I think the change here is phenomenal. People have realised that there is a lot to learn from them. Industries like Tamil and Telugu are not talking down to their audience. In fact, they are pushing their boundaries. The stories are contextual, they pride themselves in the cultural references, they are deeply personal, nuanced and have a massive scale. The southern industries have done this repeatedly. The way things are going, multilingual projects are the in thing. For every actor and talent involved, the audience base increases. I feel thrilled that I did my second Tamil film, Valimai. I have learned so much by sharing screen space with Thala Ajith and Rajinikanth sir. Not just as an actor, but also as an audience member, I am excited about these big pan-India films. Why should we have so many boundaries within our country anyway? We need to shake things up a bit in these seminal times.