Bollywood actress Huma Qureshi in Sharjah to launch her first superhero book 'Zeba'

It was going to be one of those days — I knew it. You know the ones, where you get there ahead of an appointment, but are made to wait for an hour longer. But it was a Bollywood star, so perhaps it was understandable. After one hour at the reception of the Pullman Sharjah hotel, I was ushered quickly and quietly into the elevator and towards a closed door. The bell was rung and suddenly a tinkling voice rung out, “Hello!”

And there she stood in a black suit, the jacket glittering with crystal flowers, her long red-tinted hair flowing down her back. Actress Huma Qureshi was ready to talk about her recent project, the creation of a superhero called Zeba, a sassy but spoiled, smoke-inhaling superhero, who for all her flaws is somehow more relatable.

For Qureshi, the characters in the book all have some elements of her. “I think all the characters are me. The book has an interesting structure. Each chapter is in first person, and each chapter is a different character, taking the book forward. So, while one chapter could be Ziba and her inner voice, the other could be her mother or her father. They are all talking in first-person narrative, so there’s no judgement. And that, for me, was very, very fascinating as a process and as an actor.”

The Monica O My Darling star, who spoke to wknd. on the sidelines of the Sharjah International Book Fair this week, talked about the birth of Zeba: An Accidental Superhero, why she’s so interested in self-help books, and who she channels when she starts to type her stories.

Zeba was born during the Covid era; when the world learned about baking and cooking and took on additional hobbies to keep isolation from burrowing into their brains, when Zoom became as well-known as Google, and sanitiser became the new must-have accessory. Qureshi, who has been in show business for over a decade, felt the great boredom where work used to be. “I'm a person who likes to keep working all the time and whose brain is always on to the next thing. And so when Covid happened, I had all this time to myself, and all the stuff that was inside started coming out,” she said.

‘It could happen’

The personality quirks that make Zeba, Zeba, explains Qureshi, are believable. “We all thought when we were younger [that] when you're in your 30s, you would have figured it out. You know, because older people look so much smarter when you're in your teens, but no, they’re also as complicated and confused and figuring it out. And I feel especially with women, Muslim women, there’s a stereotype that just automatically comes in writing and in depiction of them in popular cinema or whatever. That’s not true. I’m a Muslim woman. I'm not a stereotype. I'm a walking, talking jumble, mumble of all sorts of contradictions, and where is my representation?

“I've not seen that. I've always seen like a very extreme version of what it means to be — I think, that’s also the reason Zeba came out.”

At first, she wanted to use her idea to make a movie or a series. “Because it has that kind of international appeal in terms of the modern world and the Muslim world, and what it means to be a woman in a world like that and navigate that space, but in a very entertaining, fun, popular culture way,” she said.

As she mulled over writing a film script or choosing to craft a comic book, she felt a twinge that encouraged her to just, well, write. The avid journaler — she started penning her thoughts down in the 11th grade — then began to spell out her idea. “I thought, ‘I just need to vomit this out in paper, and then let's see what comes out of it,’ which is exactly what I did. And I had a few friends who nudged me in the right direction. And so, over a two-year period, it slowly took shape.”

Not one to barter her fame for a byline, she chose Harper Collins as the publisher that would market her book. “They were pushing me. My publisher was asking to rewrite… I enjoyed that creative interaction,” she said, her eyes glittering with enthusiasm.

Qureshi, who was born in New Delhi on July 28, 1986, began her acting career — which she still calls her main job — in 2012, with a stint as a supporting character in the drama Gangs of Wasseypur.

She has since swept through storytelling platforms, having appeared on the big screen with hits such as Badlapur, in a web series (Leila), and in a movie that had her put on 20kilos for her role, Double XL (which you can still watch on Netflix).

“For me, it was always about like playing a character — Double XL was the first film under my production company that I chose to make [and I wanted it to] represent every girl or every guy who has a body image issue. I put on almost 20kgs for it. I feel like it makes you understand the female body, the male gaze, ideas of beauty,” she added.

“Even today, every time I put a no make-up selfie, people are like, ‘Oh my God, she’s got no make-up’. And I'm like, but why is it such a big deal?”

When asked about her medium of preference — big screens versus OTT storytelling — she confidently says: “I prefer the project that pays me the most money.” This isn’t her dissing her craft; rather, she’s explaining that she’s worked hard and fought tooth and nail to get to where she is, a place where she can enjoy the income of her efforts. “You know how hard I have worked to reach a point where I feel I’m finally getting paid somewhere close to what I think the hard work that I put in is worth?” she asks. “I really enjoy it [my pay slip]. And I enjoy flaunting it as well, because I feel like otherwise, sometimes, you know, the hairdresser gets paid more than actresses in big mainstream films.”

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