Huma Qureshi was looking pleased as the proverbial punch when t2 met her in the office of CAA Kwan, her managers, in Andheri. Who can blame her? The actress took a big gamble playing Jhimli, a prostitute caught in the cat-and-mouse game between Raghu (Varun Dhawan) and Liak (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) in Sriram Raghavan’s critically acclaimed Badlapur. This was a film that even she thought was “too out there” to do. Over a cuppa of joe, Huma told t2 how she convinced herself to do the film and why she was missing from the promotions.

Congratulations on all the rave reviews and success of Badlapur.

(Beams) Thank you so much. The last week has been full of anxiety and anticipation and euphoria and celebration. There have been phone calls and messages and tweets… lots of reckless retweeting (laughs).
I think people will stop following me because I have been RTing every praise I’ve received over the last few days. It’s been fabulous.

Any compliment that was unexpected or very memorable?

A lot of people. Tabu saw the film the night before the release and she called to tell me she liked my performance... and she is someone I love and admire. I keep telling her if I was a boy, I’d marry her in a heartbeat! For her to praise my work is just…something else. All this praise has been special because Badlapur is not Jhimli’s story. It’s about the conflict between Varun and Nawaz’s characters. So to be noticed on that canvas and appreciated as well is very special.

Like you mentioned, the film doesn’t revolve around your character. So when the film was offered to you, did you immediately say ‘yes’?

No… I have to be honest. It wasn’t an easy decision to do this film. I was very scared of playing this character who is so out there. I had never played a sex worker before. I wasn’t sure how the audience would react to all the intense stuff that happens in the film. I remember I was on a flight before signing the film and I met Davidji (Dhawan, Varun’s father) and he asked if I was doing this film with Varun. And I said: ‘I haven’t decided because it’s so intense’. Days later, Varun called asking what I had told his dad because Davidji was worried about this intense film that his son had signed. Apparently, he said if someone like Huma, who does edgy films, is worried about signing this film, how dark is it?! (Laughs)

Dinesh Vijan (the film’s producer) gave me the option of doing Varun’s wife’s role (played by Yami Gautam). I would love to romance Varun Dhawan, but not in this film! This film is meant to shock and entertain, so you have to put yourself out there. Also, what kept me hooked was the story because it’s so engaging. The question that I had to ask myself was: ‘Do I want to be a part of this really cool film or not?’ And I really wanted to work with Sriram. I am glad I took that leap of faith.

How did you prepare to play Jhimli?

Sriram told me to watch a bunch of Indian and international films. I watched the old Mausam (Sanjeev Kumar-Sharmila Tagore), The Edge of Heaven (directed by Fatih Akin). A lot of the films were just for me to understand the mood of the film and not necessarily as a reference for how to play Jhimli. We were sure of how I should look when the age jump happens. I thought I could keep my hair really short. It would just give Jhimli an interesting look. I kept experimenting with wigs and sending him pictures. The amazing thing about Sriram is that while he is very clear about what he wants, he allows you the opportunity to explore. He would never tell me how he wanted a dialogue to be said…instead he’d ask questions that made me delve deeper into Jhimli’s psyche.

You have some tough “intense” scenes with Varun in the first half. More than exposure, it was the violence in those scenes that made them tough to stomach. They must have been just as tough to shoot?

It was very disturbing. There is exposure… Jhimli is dancing and trying to seduce Raghu, but what Sriram was very clear about was that those scenes were meant to disturb and not titillate the audience. He wanted the audience to understand how messed up the situation was and to feel bad for Jhimli. I had never done a scene like that before, so it was scary. I broke down on the set that day. (Pauses) In hindsight, I am glad I did that scene because it’s a brave attempt. That scene could have gone horribly wrong, but it didn’t because Sriram handled it so sensitively.
A lot of reviews have said that Sriram wasn’t very kind to his women characters. I don’t agree with them. We don’t live in a utopian world where everyone is equal and everything is hunky-dory. Women and children have always been soft targets and Sriram just reflected that.

It’s been four years since you last shared screen space with Nawaz in Gangs of Wasseypur. What was it like to work together again?

We picked up from where we had left off…we are very similar in that aspect. There was no awkwardness at any time. We have obviously kept in touch with each other since Wasseypur. It’s always nice to reconnect on set as actors. As an actor, Nawaz is on another level.

You were missing from all the pre-release promotional activities. There were lots of rumours as to why. What was the real reason?

It was a very conscious decision to not promote the film. I wanted people to see the film before I spoke about it. Say, if I had gone to a college or a music channel to promote this film, I would have been asked: ‘You are playing a sex worker. So do you have bold scenes? How many? Who with?’ I find these questions very offensive. As an actor, I do these scenes for my craft and you have no right to cheapen my work by asking questions like this.

Almost exactly a year ago when you last spoke to t2, you had said ‘It’s not easy living the life of a movie star’. Has it become easier?

Nooooo! (Laughs) And all reliable sources tell me it’ll get more and more difficult. It’s a devil I have chosen to be with, so I have no complaints. I love acting and the buzz of being on a film set. So I just need to buckle down and deal with all the extras. Not every day is a great day… there are days when you wake up and hear some rubbish story about yourself… you just have to remember that you are in this shit because you love doing what you do (laughs).

You are going to start shooting with your brother Saqib Saleem soon...

Yes! It’s quite exciting. It’s a supernatural film which is a remake of Oculus (a 2013 supernatural film about a sister trying to exonerate her brother who has been charged with murder). I have warned him that I’ll eat him alive! (Laughs)

Karishma Upadhyay
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