Huma Qureshi

h Delhi in her childhood Qureshi completed her education from Gargi College – University of Delhi, where she did a Bachelor’s in History Honours. Post her studies Qureshi due to her extensive interest in theatre activities joined the theatre group Act 1 where she went on to perform in some plays. During the tenure she also worked with several NGO’s as a model and also assisted a documentary filmmaker after which she relocated to Mumbai to try her luck in cinema on her friends suggestion where she auditioned for the shelved movie Junction, but later it led her to being offered a two year contract with Hindustan Lever company to serve as their brand model. She went on to be a model for the brand on many of their Ad’s for which she got to work with huge stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and many more which eventually landed her an acting gig in movies for the very first time when she was spotted by filmmaker Anurag Kashyap for her acting abilities and he later on signed her for a three film contract in which she made her debut in the two part revenge saga Gangs of Wasseypur.

Sparkling Debut in Gangs of Wasseypur ( 2012 ) Qureshi was initially slated to make her film debut in the movie Billa 2 opposite Ajith in Tamil, beating 700 other candidates in the audition but as the post production went on for long she opted out of the project and made her official debut in Hindi cinema in the year 2012 through Anurag Kashyap’s revenge drama Gangs of Wasseypur , where she swept away the honours with her befitting interpretation of the village girl in love with a criminal, where she was cast opposite Nawazuddin Siddiqui , the Manoj Bajpayee starrer was the perfect debut as she received widespread positive word of mouth and the movie turned out to be a modern day classic and made her a regular phase for movie goers with her realistic and earthy rendition of the character which won her a Filmfare Award Nomination for Best Female Debut , later the same year she was seen continuing her character from the prequel which further extended the promise exhibited by her in the former part and further enhanced her acting credentials and the movie too turned out to be classic sequel which also had international screenings in prestigious film festivals. The movie was a life altering milestone for her at that point with a Best Supporting Actress Nomination for the year and several other Awards. Array of consecutive releases ( later 2012 – 2014 ) After a dazzling kick-off Huma Qureshi completed her three film contract by starring next in Anurag Kasyap’s production Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana opposite Kunal Kapoor , where she was seen delivering yet another standout part coupled with her free style acting styles, and the film was a hit at the box office. Huma Qureshi was next seen playing a witch in the ensemble supernatural thriller Ek Thi Daayan, alongside Emraan Hashmi, Konkana Sen Sharma and Kalki Koechlin in the lead. Qureshi was the sole one to benefit from the outing as her thunderous screen presence and the critics praised her to be one of the strong points of the movie and the movie was only a cold hit. Qureshi after an uneventful Ek Thi Daayan, went on to be a part of the anthology film where she played the lead in one of the short films “Sujata” where she cast as a girl who is haunted by the fear of harassment in the hands of her cousin for her whole life due to past ill treatments in her youth; her restrained performance won her a special mention Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles in the year 2013 during the screening of the critically acclaimed movie. Later the year she was seen in an action avatar in the ensemble cast thriller D-Day along with Arjun Rampal , Rishi Kapoor and Shruthi Haasan, which broke away her “usual Hindi movie heroine” image, but the movie bombed at the box office. Qureshi continued her fabulous run in the black comedy Dedh Ishqiya, where she was paired opposite Arshad Warsi , the movie too was a commercial success and Qureshi yet gain garnered acclaim for her soothing and effortless traits in playing the character with lighter shades. Major Turnaround in Badlapur ( 2015) Qureshi after a string of mainstream pompous roles landed in the role of a sex worker in Sriram Ragahavan’s revenge drama Badlapur , where she was paired opposite Nawazudhin Siddiqui again who played a psycho killer who undergoes gradual remorse during the Jail sentence but fate had other things in store for him. The Varun Dhawan starrer was put under the spotlight for its ambitious storyline. Dark treatment and exemplary performances of the lead cast. Qureshi was seen taking a detour from her usual forte and was seen getting under the skin of the character and emoting the highly polarized perspectives of the character with much panache. The movie was also a money spinner and went on to be a critical phenomenon and exhibited an entire new facet of her acting promise. Huma Qureshi also marked her debut in Marathi film Highway which was a mediocre outing which she followed up with X : Past is Present; an anthology flick where she appeared in one of the segments titled “Knot”. Huma tried her hand in Malayalam cinema with the Mammootty starrer romcom White in the year 2016 which had a poor run at the box office and was her last release. Her upcoming project is the British Indian Historical drama Viceroy’s House which is set to release in march of 2017.