New Delhi: Huma Qureshi wowed audiences and reviewers alike in Piyush Gupta's biographical drama Tarla, which was inspired by the life of the late celebrity chef Tarla Dalal. The actress discussed her first Bollywood film, ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, directed by Anurag Kashyap, in a recent interview. Huma Qureshi claims that the two-part gangster film was both a dream debut and a "lost" experience for her. The actress also revealed how much she was paid for a lead role in the movie.
In an interview with Mojo Story with Barkha Dutt, Huma revealed, “I got my first brush with success pretty early on. Maybe it was just this enthusiasm of getting out of the house and being (an actor) and then Gangs of Wasseypur happened. By 2010 I moved to Mumbai and by 2012 the film was out and it became this big hit in India.”
She continued, “My world just exploded. This was a film where they paid me some Rs 75,000, that’s it…I am working with them (Viacom 18) now, they are my producers. But that was my first film and it wasn’t a fancy affair. There were no five-star hotels, cushioning of vanity vans, or an army of people (following you).”
Huma went on to say that she had no idea "what was happening" or "how this movie became such a huge hit".
She said, “It was like a bunch of people, who went to Varanasi for three months, shot, and came back. Nobody had any clue what was happening. So when it came out, I was like, ‘Whoa! I am the lead in the film. My face is on the hoarding?! Should I have gotten paid more for it? Is this how movies get made?”
‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ was directed by Anurag Kashyap and stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Manoj Bajpayee, Richa Chadha, Pankaj Tripathi and others. The movie was a smashing success upon its 2012 release, and its cast received great reviews.