I am an insecure person. I have my own insecurities about lots of things, but I am pretty secure as an actor.
— Huma Qureshi
I have been told too much - to talk less, to keep my opinions to myself, to not sound intelligent - all this was told to me so that I could fit in. But I never thought I fit in anyway. So if you don't fit in, at least stand out.
I would love to do a biopic or a situational comedy.
If a woman is saying something out loud, she is asking for help, and you have no business to character assassinating her. You have to reach out to her and help her and protect her, and I think we need to protect our women, and we need to protect our children.
I grew as an actress, and I feel I gained a lot, whenever I have worked with any great director in the past.
I would like to say this for the record: that I am not trying to lose weight or gain weight. I am just trying to be the best version of myself, and that's really important.
As a member of the audience, when you see someone from your country working in an international project, your curiosity about that film increases manifold.
I just cannot do a boring film. It has to be interesting with a good character.
Cinema and cricket are two professions in this country that people have an opinion on.
I don't think one should be a slave to one medium.
I have always said that Twitter is my forum to talk to people about what's happening in my life.
One thing we need to learn from the West is how professional they are about their work. A 7:30 A.M. call time means just that. That's something we need to imbibe from them. And people in the West need to learn from us how we work with our stories.
For me, growth and empowerment are about giving a woman a choice.
No one likes it when their personal life is talked about, and I am no exception. But I guess it's the price an actor has to pay for being in the public eye.
Maybe at 55, I would like to direct. I will go the Angelina Jolie way.
In school, I was always a fat girl. No matter how thin you are, but girls always have this thing in mind that I am a little fat.
I am bored of the 'Gangs of Wasseypur' image.
Beauty has no set standard. It is honestly in diversity.
Oh yes, my best birthday gift was when my dad gifted me my first car in college. It was a Maruti Swift. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. It was so much fun, as I could completely show it off to my friends that I have my own car now and not my dad's car.
The very fact that I got to work with Akshay Kumar was special.
In India and elsewhere in the world, the moment a woman speaks out against harassment, people sort of start making all sorts of character judgments about her, about her morality, about what she was wearing, and all such things, and I think that is not fair.
Working with directors like Gurinder Chadha was a learning experience for me.
There are a lot of people out there who are just bullies. They constantly keep telling you that you are too fat, too thin, your teeth are not fine, you can't speak English really well, and you are too short, etc.
It is a challenge to work away from India and with a cast and crew from all over the world. But it's also very gratifying, and you learn so much by just being with them.
I make it a point to pick films that tell you a story in an engaging way. I can't compromise on the content. The script has to be substantial and impactful.
My parents gave me a strong sense of entitlement. And I use that in a very good way.
I wouldn't say that I haven't got my fair share of good roles. This industry has been very kind to me.
If I'm playing an Indian in a Hollywood film, I won't do it in any funny Indian accent.
What I miss most about Lucknow is its chaat.
I believe in equal pay for equal work. Gender, race, skin colour, or ethnicity should not be the parameters to hire someone or to decide how much they should be paid.
As a middle class girl from Delhi, with practically no backing in films, this industry and the audience have given me a lot of love.
After 'Gangs,' people thought that I couldn't speak a sentence in English or that I don't wear jeans or, you know, I am a city girl.
I think you don't have to be size zero to prove yourself... to connect with the audience.
As an artist, I am very proud of 'Ek Thi Daayan.' It was a supernatural flick and a huge risk, since not many films are made like that.
I have always been cool and open about my body.
I don't have any ego, and I will go and audition for parts if I'm offered an interesting script.
A lot of issues that we have in the world today rise from the fact that we do not know enough about each other's cultures, that we don't respect each other's origins and there is so much negativity and strife around because we don't know where the other person is coming from.
As a woman, absolutely, I have had to deal with people making advances at me, but not just people from the business of film industry but people across different professions and different strata. I think it has a lot to do with power; it is not only limited to the film business.
The film is intended to unite people and not create division in the society. 'Partition' talks about peace and humanity.
Collaboration between different parts of the world will bring us closer. From a business point of view, it opens up new markets as well.
Whether my film becomes commercially successful or not, only God can tell, or the box-office numbers. So why worry about it and get distracted?
I know that when you do similar kind of films, one after the other, people tend to stereotype and say, 'She is only good at this.'
As an actor, I don't have an agenda. I don't have to prove a point; I am not a bastion of a particular brand of cinema. I am doing what makes me happy.
One would be lying if they say nepotism doesn't exist.
Indian actors are afraid to go and work abroad because people are very professional over there. In India, we have become very lazy. Everything happens slowly, and as per God's will. A 9 A.M. call time means we start working at whatever time we wish.
It always seems like coming to my second home whenever I come to Lucknow.
I believe in content. Just looking pretty next to the hero gives me no joy. I believe I have more to offer than that.
Co-directing is not possible with my brother. We have very different opinions.
I remember, during an ad shoot, Anurag said to me that you are doing my film, and I was wondering do we really get films so easily. I thought you have to struggle and all. But he kept his word and offered me 'Gangs Of Wasseypur.'
I'm still in awe of Madhuri. I've grown up watching her movies, and to see her in a film like 'Dedh Ishqiya,' which is quite unlike her previous work, was wonderful.
