I Love DDLJ And Hum Aapke Hain Kaun – Huma Qureshi

It ain’t every day that as a newcomer, you get to walk the red carpet at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. It ain’t every day that you get to shoot commercial films with top film stars. It ain’t every day that the likes of Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan compliment you. So what if your first film never takes off, you still have five films in your kitty. Ladies and gentlemen meet Huma Qureshi.

She may seem like any other eager beaver debutante awaiting her moment of arrival. But fortunately for her, things started happening to her the moment Anurag Kashyap pencilled her in for his Gangs Of Wasseypur. The buzz has reached a crescendo right now. What with filmmakers swearing by her talent. So what’s it like to live the dream of millions? Excerpts:

I’ve been a Delhi girl all my life. I never thought of coming to Mumbai or being an actress. But when my friend called me for an audition for a movie called Junction, it set me thinking. Sadly, the film never got made.

I was lucky to get picked up for ads. By now I’ve done some 10-15 odd campaigns. In my first six months in Mumbai, I landed a two-year contract with Hindustan Unilever. My first ad was with Abhishek Bachchan for a cell phone. I played a reporter.

My big break happened when I did a mobile ad with Aamir Khan shot by Anurag Kashyap in Panchgani. Suddenly one day Anurag told me that I’d be doing his next film – Gangs of Wasseypur. I was often told how difficult it is to bag a film. The ad really changed my life.

I’ve done three commercials with Aamir Khan. One for a biscuit and the other for a cell phone. While we were dubbing, he told me, ‘You did well in the ads.’ Aamir’s someone we look up to and if he tells you that, it certainly means a lot!

When I was asked to do an ad with Shah Rukh Khan, I jumped and said, ‘Ya I’ll do it.’ They said, ‘But… there’s no money’. I said, ‘I’ll do it.’ Then they said, ‘You have to be pregnant in the atd’. I said, ‘Ya I’ll do it.’ Then they said, ‘There’s a child too’. I said, ‘I don’t care what it is, it is Shah Rukh Khan! Do whatever, make me a boy, cut my hair, shave my eyebrows!’ I’ve been in love with him ever since I was little.

The first time I met Anurag and Kalki Koechlin it was in Panchgani, we really hit it off. He likes to nurture talent. Kalki too, spoke highly about me to Vishalji (Bhardwaj) when they were considering the main lead for Ek Thi Daayan (with Emraan Hashmi and Konkona Sen Sharma).

Then I met director Sameer Sharma. We’ve made this movie called Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana with Kunal Kapoor. When I bagged the lead role, I actually couldn’t believe it. Sameer is a friend; so it just took me by surprise. Sam thinks I’m one of the best things to happen to the film.

Trishna (an international film) is the Micheal Winterbotton film, starring Riz Ahmed and Freida Pinto. A lot of industry people have done cameos in it including Amit Trivedi, Kalki and myself. I play a diva. There was an item number sequence. I was like ‘Whoaaa, I’m gonna be dancing with 40 people behind me.’

Eight months after I moved here, my younger brother Saqib Saleem followed. And he’s already killing it! It’s so unfair! He’s already debuted in Mujhse Fraandship Karoge and earned nominations at award functions. He came in with Y-Films and I with an Anurag Kashyap film. When he meets my friends, he’s Huma’s brother and when I meet his friends, I’m Saqib’s sister.

My first film (Gangs Of Wasseypur) and a world premier at Cannes! Stuff dreams are made of. I guess I’m living every middle class girl’s dream. I loved when people laughed and clapped at my scenes. We got a standing ovation. We kept hugging each other post the screening. We went out for dinner later and started dancing on the streets. I danced barefoot because my heels were killing me!

https://filmfare.com/interviews/whos-that-girl-870.html