Huma Qureshi tells us why it’s time for angry young women to shine on the silver screen

At the heart of an actor’s insecurities lies the fear of inability to express: to convey the exact emotions a character wants to communicate to the audience. And Huma Qureshi has now ventured into that very daunting task in her newest project, Baby Do Die Do — portraying a deaf and mute character.

The sheer audacity with which she questions society’s norms through such unconventional characters is simply brilliant. In this film, she plays the role of a hitwoman, which is something we don’t usually come across in Bollywood. Without uttering a word or listening to the world around her, the character delves into a vicious avatar that Huma believes quite beautifully redefined her narrative as an actress.

Huma Qureshi unfiltered: Fear, feminism and the making of Baby Karmakar

Huma took us through the complexities of her character, Baby Karmakar, “I feel like my biggest fear on taking on the role was whether they will understand the performance because I don’t even say a word. There’s a lot of insecurity that comes along when you don’t have the crutch of dialogue. The inability to express myself, like, what if I’m feeling something, but the audience isn’t feeling it? Then what do I do? So, that was definitely my fear going in with this role.”

Yet, for Huma, the challenge of portraying Baby went beyond the performance alone. It delved into something deeper, questioning the very fabric of society’s norms. Men have often been portrayed as the commanding presence in movies, but as times change, tables turn with them as well. Huma explained how women, too, hold the power now and said, “We often see the angry young man and glorify him but now it’s time for the women to shine. It is our homage to the angry young woman out there who is rarely showcased in our Indian cinema. And we wanted to have more representation of that in this film.”

This desire to showcase bold, unapologetic women in the spotlight has been a recurring theme in characters she chooses to portray. It was evident in Gangs of Wasseypur, Maharani and now, Baby Do Die Do.

Speaking about the one thing that made her fall in love with the character, Huma said, “The fact that she doesn’t need rescuing and the fact that she doesn’t need a hero to come and save the day. She is completely in control, she is a lethal killer and she is that not despite her gender, but irrespective of it.”

The film has performed fairly well at the box office within its first week, however a quick massive box office collection was never the real goal of the team. Huma explained, “Our goal isn’t to hit box office numbers in 72 hours because we have made the kind of film that stays in the theatres for two, three, four or whatever number of weeks the fans decide. It’s meant to be discovered, it’s meant to be savoured. And hopefully when we do this, it will open up a new kind of reality for other independent makers to also experience that.”

Now, away from the commentary on character arcs and how cinema should be consumed, our narrative also makes room for tenderness. For all her grit and self-reliance, Baby might not need a knight in shining armour to come to her rescue, but she isn’t exactly immune to love. And that responsibility is rightly taken over by actor Rachit Singh. When we asked how she felt about sharing the screen with her real-life boyfriend for the first time, Huma playfully dodged the question, quipping that we should ask him instead, since she’s the more seasoned actor of the two.

But, continuing on a serious note, she admitted, “He’s been an acting coach for the last ten years, grooming others to become stars and become famous. Meanwhile, he has also been quite patient about his own journey. I really admire people who make it on their own, who are completely self made. I admire that quality immensely… and that they have so much determination that they don’t let the world make them bitter or scar them in any way.”

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