Taking ‘Bayaan’ to Toronto International Film Festival, Huma Qureshi discusses betting on an indie movie and how it got international support
Huma Qureshi in the first look of ‘Bayaan’. Pics/Instagram, X
Huma Qureshi has made several trips to Toronto, but the upcoming visit will be special for her. The actor will take Bayaan to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where Bikas Ranjan Mishra’s directorial venture — the only Indian title to be selected in the Discovery section — will première on September 7. “This is my maiden visit to the festival,” Qureshi says gleefully.
Stills from ‘Homebound’ and (right) ‘Gandhi’
In Bayaan, the actor plays an investigator who goes to Rajasthan to solve a case that shows her how our society is steeped in patriarchy. Saying yes to the thriller was an instinctive decision, she says. “The script was fantastic. Bikas and Shiladitya [Bora, producer] were sure of the story they wanted to tell — it was India-specific, but told with a larger global audience [in mind]. The film is supported by International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund. During the [Film Independent’s] LA Residency, the scripting was done under the mentorship of Craig Mazin of Chernobyl [2019] fame. It felt like something I wanted to bet on. I had wanted to do an indie project for a long time. It is getting so much appreciation and that reinstates my faith in the fact that passion drives work in the movies.”
Craig Mazin
In the past few years, Qureshi shone in digital entertainment with films like Monica O My Darling (2022) and Tarla (2023), and the series Maharani (2021-24). She has been vocal about the pay disparity in OTT entertainment, pointing out that despite the show’s success, her remuneration is nowhere close to that of male actors. Taking that thought forward, she says the pay gap is only the tip of the problem. “The industry loves to call OTT a level-playing field, but the gap is real. The disparity will get worse. Today’s content is so different from the quality content we were making a few years ago. We all thought OTT would change narrative styles. While we see shows like Breaking Bad and Squid Game, where are those shows from India that can break barriers? To have systemic changes, you need mindsets to shift, and we are nowhere close to that shift yet.”
Qureshi has been exploring another creative frontier — writing. In 2023, she released her debut novel, Zeba: An Accidental Superhero. While it was initially written as a concept note for a television series, she turned it into a book. Is the screen adaptation in the pipeline? “I’d love to do a screen adaptation. It would be wonderful to go back to that world from a fresh perspective,” she says.
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