Huma Qureshi believes more people watched Leila than any of her theatrical films

Huma Qureshi reveals that she was apprehensive about jumping into the digital world with Leila.

For Huma Qureshi, Leila — the web series that marked her digital debut — paved the way for a major change
in her career and has even prepared her for international projects. “The fact that people liked Leila is the biggest achievement for me. It has opened doors and taken me closer to bigger opportunities. I don’t think my work would have had an access to a larger, global audience had it not been for Leila, and that’s my biggest takeaway from the show,” she says with a smile.

Huma Qureshi at the screening of the Netflix film Ghost Stories. (IANS)

The actor admits that people around her were initially wary about her venturing into the digital space. “People were a bit apprehensive about the whole digital evolution that happened in India. They thought that it would be a step down from movies for me and asked me why I wanted to do it,” she says, adding, “There was a lot of disinformation. Anything new always takes time to catch up. I’ve been an avid watcher of international content, be it series or films.”

“I’ve spent a lot of my evenings watching some great shows from different parts of the world and I always thought that it would be cool to be part of them. So, when I got the opportunity to headline Leila, I gladly dipped my hands in it.”

Huma reveals that it scared her to give a major portion of her year to a digital project as opposed to films.

“It was scary to think I’m giving a chunk of my time and life to doing Leila and not any movie. But, I thought the leap would be a larger opportunity to having a show of my own and headlining it. Moreover, the eyeballs it would receive would supersede the eyeballs that any of my films would draw when they release or are distributed in India. And I thought it would be great to be paid in dollars (laughs),” she explains.

2019, Huma says, was a rather interesting year for her. “I feel very blessed and happy. I was in Delhi shooting for Leila. Post that, I went to America and then I started working on Army Of The Dead with Zack Snyder (filmmaker). He’s one of the best in the business.”

Ask her on her future plans and she says, “I don’t think too much about what’s going to happen to my career. My work is to act and I want to give it my best. I want to better myself with every film. I never had the opportunity to play safe. I had to be unapologetic about finding work and making sure that I stand out.”

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