there is a time long past after Bollywood actors thought that it was under them to play for a job. But that is quickly changing and celebrities such as Huma Qureshi be long into the newest crop of artistes that are ready to accept the concept. “I auditioned for every film until Dedh Ishiqya. I am very used to the idea of walking into a room where no one knows me or my work, and making an impact with the lines that have been given to me. Going into Hollywood, my mindset has been that I am walking into a different country or industry so I have to prove myself all over again,” Qureshi explains within a Zoom discussion with ” The Hindu Weekend.

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One picture at any given time

The celebrity, that left her own Bollywood début nine years past using Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of all Wasseypur, is presently part of Zack Snyder’s zombie heist action-thriller,” Army of the Dead. From the Netflix release which also stars Dave Bautista and Tig Notaro, Qureshi plays with Geeta, one mum who resides in a quarantine camp out of war-ravaged nevada. She auditioned for that role in LosAngeles throwing a tv show she’s written herself of a superhero girl. “My agents [at CAA] asked if I’d want to meet a casting director who was working on a big film. I thought ‘might as well’.” She auditioned for your role within a Thursday and the next Monday she’d signed to be Geeta. “I was amazed at the speed at which Hollywood functions,” she says with fun.

That is her very first brush with Hollywood and the ability, as stated by the 34-year-old, was what she’d wished for. There is just one thing, however, which did initially throw off her. “In India, we are used to working on multiple projects at the same time. For this film, they blocked two-and-a-half months of my time,” says Qureshi, that finally came to realise that the value of focussing on a single project and doing it well.

Know your rights

Extended after the filming Army of the Dead had stopped, among its celebrities, Chris D’Elia, has been accused of exposing herself into multiple ladies and minding child porn. After the allegations came to light,” Snyder along with his producing partner, Deborah Snyder, chose to displace the comedian using Notaro. While closer dwelling, there have not been lots of instances of abusers getting their comeuppance, Qureshi considers “there is a lot being done to set the proper systems in place”. “Things are happening even at the contractual level. A lot of young girls, who work behind the camera and might have thought that they don’t have as much of a voice, are coming forward and telling people what’s acceptable behaviour and what’s not. I am doing a few films with Netflix and for each of them there is a call with a lawyer explaining your rights.”

The lock-down collection

One of Qureshi’s cinematic line up is Dibakar Banerjee’s futuristic picture, Freedom, and also Vasan Bala’s Monica, Oh My Darling together with Rajkummar Rao. After this month, she will be understood at the political play collection, Maharani, on Sony LIV. One of her huge screen releases are all Tamil films Valimai along with Ajith Kumar, also bell-bottom , starring Akshay Kumar. The latter was taken in Scotland throughout the ordeal. “The first 48 hours were stressful. Like everyone on the set, I had also gone from a complete lockdown to a film set. I was scared, but as humans we have this ability to go back to our original selves in a short time. Once I understood that we were in a bio-bubble, it just became about concentrating on my lines and focussing on my performance.”

Qureshi’s diverse filmography across languages and formats really are a manifestation of her refusal to be pigeon holed. “My only yardstick for judging work that’s coming my way is about the content. Is it making sense to me? I don’t think of the genre, format or the industry. As an actor, it’s so exciting that I can go to LA and shoot a film there and then shoot another one in Chennai and a series in Mumbai,” she moans.