Huma Qureshi has lately made headlines on both the personal and professional fronts. While she turned producer with recently released Baby Do Die Do, which clashed with Alia Bhatt’s Alpha in theatres, her appearances with actor and acting coach Rachit Singh have also fuelled wedding speculation.
Qureshi, however, says marriage will have to wait. “You and my mum have the same questions! I don’t have an answer to when the wedding is going to happen. Shaadi jab honi hogi tab ho jayegi; I have a lot of work to do. This is a very busy year and, right now, I am just focusing on that.”
How big a risk was turning producer?
It is a high-risk, high-reward business. It is exciting because you get to be the creator and keeper of your IP. I feel every creative person should produce a film once to understand the entire process.
As an actor, your job is largely in front of the camera. A producer, however, is responsible for everything needed to make a project happen. Sometimes, even somebody’s temperament becomes your problem.
It is a humbling experience and teaches you the value of time, money and professionalism. At the same time, the risk involved is considerable.
As actors, we are dependent on other people to hire us. Saqib (Saleem, brother- actor) and I are not cribbers, and we do not like playing victims over the roles we are not getting. The only option was to create opportunities for ourselves.
Saleem Siblings is our little brother-sister cottage industry, through which we hope to create interesting projects with like-minded people. We may not have mammoth budgets, but not every story needs ₹150 crore to be made. Some stories need only a fraction of that amount and can still be engaging. Baby Do Die Do is now in its fifth weekend and continues to get shows. I keep sharing whenever a show goes houseful in any part of the country.
How have your recent trips to Delhi been and what keeps bringing you back to the city?
Delhi, of course, is home. I have spent my entire life there. So I don’t need an excuse to come back. But when I was there recently to promote Baby Do Die Do, I toured with the film. We went to theatres to ask people, ‘What do you think of the film?’ These were all surprise visits. So, sometimes I would just bump into an old friend from college or an aunty who used to be my neighbour.
Also read: Huma Qureshi slams trolls criticising Kiara Advani for intimate scenes with Yash in Toxic’s Tabaahi: ‘Sick, disgusting’
We’ve loved watching your funny Reels, especially the ones where you and your dad pull each other’s leg. How did he react to Baby Do Die Do?
As a family, it’s been surreal. My dad runs a restaurant business in Delhi for almost 50 years, called Salim’s. My mum’s been a housewife. And we have grown up in a Punjabi part of Delhi, so I identify as a Punjabi. For us, even becoming actors was a huge leap. To have taken that step, and found success with the grace of God, and now become first-generation producers is a very strange feeling.
These days, producers take pride in saying, ‘My film is worth ₹800 crores or ₹900 crores’. How much pressure does it create for people who want to tell small, meaningful stories?
I don’t take that pressure. Firstly, because I don’t have ₹800–900 crores to make movies. Secondly, I feel like films take too much pressure of the opening weekend box office number. Oftentimes, the industry figures are inflated ones. I don’t know who are we trying to impress. At times, it is just to create a sort of perception of how bankable a film or a particular star is. So, I don’t take them too seriously. The conversation has to shift beyond numbers to the content itself. When I was growing up, I didn’t know how much films made at the box office, but I remember those scenes and songs that had a deep impact on me. For me, my metric would be ‘Hey, did you go a second time and watch the film? Or would you recommend it to another friend? Would you talk about it?’
It’s lovely to see this recognition come your way, especially when you speak so passionately about the film. Sadly, the whole chatter around, ‘kitne ki opening lagi?’, ‘aapko toh OTT mein chale jaana chahiye,’ and ‘itna bada risk le rahe ho’ continues…
This is very unhealthy. OTT mein… Arre, kyun? Somebody recently said to me, ‘Kuch films toh OTT ke liye hoti hain’. I replied, ‘Are you trying to say only people with pots and pots of money should be allowed to make theatrical films? And everybody else should just do OTT? If this happens, then a lot of movies wouldn’t get made, and a lot of new voices and people wouldn’t be discovered.’
Regarding your recent presence at the students’ protests… There must be people who would’ve warned you that it was risky, that it could be connected as a way to promote your film, or simply advised you to stay away. What made you negate those voices?
I would be lying if I said it didn’t cross my mind. We were in Delhi, and it just didn’t feel right for us not to go there and stand in solidarity. We didn’t take a single picture or inform any media. We quietly went at 2am and just sat there… I am not aligned to any political party or movement, but I felt really bad for those students… I chose not to make a statement about it because people have a way of like misinterpreting it.
Do you feel that your profession sometimes takes away your right as a citizen to do and say whatever you want to?
I am very conscious of the fact that because I’m a public figure and what I say will impact people. So, I say as less as I can. But yes, I feel like for me, the logic is that I should always speak up for humanity and that’s my only guiding light. But I cannot be expected, at every and any given point of time, to offer my opinion because sometimes even I’m in the middle of forming one. There are also athletes, sports people and industrialists who choose not to talk about things. Koi unko nahi bolta. But I feel somehow, as actors, we always come under scrutiny.