I decided to go de-glam for Shorts: Huma Qureshi

The beautiful Huma Qureshi, who made her debut in Bollywood with Anurag Kashyap’s critically acclaimed film Gangs of Wasseypur, has, within a year, made a mark in the industry within a year with her charm as well as performance. In the recently released Shorts the actor features in one of the stories. Tellychakkar entered into a candid chat with the talented actress. Excerpts: How did Shorts happen to you? The idea of Shorts came during Gangs of Wasseypur, when my director Shlok Sharma spoke to me about this film. Then he narrated a beautiful story to me written by Annie Zaidi. Hearing the same, I liked the concept and agreed to do the film. What is your take on Shorts? The idea behind Shorts was to create a new breed of actors, directors and writers who have an interesting way of looking at things. Please share something interesting about your character in Shorts? Shlok wanted me to be without make-up in the film as it is a hard-hitting story and needed that kind of a look. So, I decided to go de-glam for the character of Sujata in Shorts. What is your box-office expectation of Shorts? We haven’t made Shorts for the box-office. The directors concerned are new, fresh and talented and we are new-age actors. So the idea was to create something new. In fact, most of the films in Shorts have got awards. I have got an award and at the same time Shlok has also got an award. Internationally too, the film is being widely acclaimed. Do you think that Shorts will serve any purpose for the cast and crew? This is a beginning and it is good. Some of the directors of Shorts are working on their own feature films. Hopefully, they will make a mark in the coming years and make their own feature films in future. It’s a good step in that direction. What is the difference between short and feature films? A feature film is a much longer, dedicated sort of a commitment while a short film is, in terms of time, much shorter. But what you have to portray within those 10-15 minutes is the main essence. So, there’s a lot of pressure in doing a short film. You have to tell an entire story and the journey of a character and make people move and believe in those 10-15 minutes. That’s quite a challenge. Finally, can you cite any memorable experience during the making of Shorts? (smiles) We had to shoot in Pune for a day. I sat behind the wheels and drove my entire team all the way till our shooting destination. I love driving on the highway. And what made the experience more adventurous was that it was raining all through the journey.