‘I was asked to change my name’

Actor Huma Qureshi has been in Bollywood for the past five years — she came into the limelight in 2012 with Gangs of Wasseypur and was in this year’s hit Jolly LLB 2. Recalling her early days, and the advice she got then, she laughs now. “I was asked to change my name, as there’s a Pakistani actor with the same name and [I was told] that I wouldn’t want that association, [more so] since I wanted to be the leading lady. I was like, ‘I am not going to do that. I will always be Huma Qureshi and people will have to deal with that,’” says Huma, who will next be seen alongside Rajinikanth in a film by Pa. Ranjith. Huma, a Delhi girl, says that she started getting ad work as soon as she reached Mumbai. “But I had to give auditions,” she says. “There would be days when I’d pack a dabba in the morning and head out. Casting agents would send us messages like, ‘Today’s look Indian or Western.’ We’d pack a big bag with all our changing options and go to places that we hadn’t even heard of. Then we’d change in some dingy studio and give the audition. We got some rejections — it was hard, new, and challenging.”