Huma Qureshi on being judged for turning author: It’s not expected from an actor
Huma Qureshi talks about her stint as an author, facing judgements for it, turning it into a film and taking her family's restaurant business ahead
While Huma Qureshi started her professional journey as an actor, but not wanting to limit herself to that, she ventured into writing and published her first book Zeba: An Accidental Superhero. Recently, she put up a post on Instagram revealing that she has finished writing her second book Dhundh as well. As she opens up about her journey as an author, Huma Qureshi admits that “it’s not expected from an actor in our industry” to do something as intellectual as being an author.
Ask her about this prejudice against actors, which probably an artiste in any other field probably doesn’t face as much, and she says, “Ek to sab ko gyaan bahut dena hota hai actors ko, pata nahi kyun. Sabhi ke paas koi guru mantra hota hai that you should do this or that. I am not trying to be rude, but I haven’t asked for any of those opinions.”
The actor adds, “Sometimes you need to let people explore and if they make a mistake, it’s fine. It’s okay to make mistakes, try something new and fail. For me, the bigger problem is not even trying anything different. The most boring thing for me would be to look the same, sound the same and land up the same every day to work. Isse acha 9-5 wali naukri kar lete. People go through their entire lives being scared to experiment, they will keep doing the same stuff till kingdom come. I find that very suffocating. I might not be successful in everything I try, but I want people to say that at least she tried.”
Reflecting on how her writing journey started, Huma recalls, “We all say that one day we’ll write a book kind of a thing. But when I had time during Covid, I had this idea in my head and I was wondering what to do with it. The first thought was that should I write a script as being from films, we think in terms of scripts first. But there is something very beautiful about writing a book, it sounds more intelligent. So, I thought let’s do something intellectual. But the love it got has been overwhelming. I guess it’s not expected from an actor in our industry to also be an author, but I never adhered to such terms. I just thought that this is a story I want to tell and put out in the world, so I did it.” She also quips that the rights of her book are available if any maker wants to turn it into a film.
After acting and writing, is there any other venture she wants to explore? “Hospitality will always be in my blood. My restaurant Saleem is there, and it has been there for 50 years now, in a time when restaurants shut in one or two years. We are expanding it now and both Saqib (Saleem, actor-brother) and I would like to be important champions of that journey and taking it across pan-India. We also want to expand it to other countries and take Indian cuisine all over the world,” she ends.
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