Disarmingly honest, Huma Qureshi is always a delight to talk to. With Season 2 of the show Maharani, frontlined by the actor, streaming on SonyLIV from August 25, we caught up with Huma for a candid chat.

You turned a year younger on July 28. What was the day like and growing up, what are your best birthday memories?

As a kid, it was about new clothes and throwing a party and getting gifts and taking chocolates to school to distribute among friends. In short, it was very special.

I still get very excited about my birthday. There are a few days in a year which I treat as my days and I don’t like working on those days. I want to just sit back, take in some birthday love, have some self-care time.... If you don’t do that, then you become another working machine. I want to enjoy my life and have a good work-life balance. So my birthdays are a reminder to celebrate the year gone by and think of all that has been achieved and set intentions and goals for the coming year.

Coming to Maharani, what was the most standout feedback you got for Season One?

When we were making the series, we knew we were on to something good, something felt right.... I remember it was a Thursday at midnight when the first season dropped and I was up and super excited. I watched a few episodes and finished the rest the next morning. It seemed nice to me but I was waiting to see what people had to say.

Then we moved on to Sunday and my brother Saqib (Saleem, actor) still hadn’t seen it. That evening, he came home and literally barged into my room. We never walk into each others’ rooms without calling first. But that day, he just came in directly and said he had some 30 people call or text him to tell him that they loved me on the show! I had this big smile and tears in my eyes. Before this, he had never had people who didn’t know me at all call him up and urge him to congratulate me on their behalf. That, for me, was very special.

Where would you place Rani of Maharani in terms of the scope and variety it offers you to perform?

It’s a very well-written character, a rounded character. In the classical sense, it’s a hero’s journey. We have a certain image of what a hero should be like... Rani is an unlikely hero. She’s a woman from a village with not much education, she is neither glamorous nor cool and she rises to be the chief minister. She stumbles often but learns along the way and is quite smart.

She has a lot of native wisdom, which is one of her most empowering qualities. There is something very uniquely endearing about her, which drew me. Sometimes, when we show a strong woman on screen, we almost strip her off the fact that she’s a woman. That’s not the case with Rani... she retains the core of who she is. Very often when we talk about empowered women, we place them in a milieu that is alien to common people. Rani is steeped in the Indian milieu, she’s a beacon of light and hope and talks about women’s rights and representation. When I first heard about the character, I thought it’s a goldmine.

You just spoke about how Rani stumbles and learns from her mistakes but soldiers on and retains who she is. Would you say that you have had a similar journey?

She’s now sort of embedded in my DNA. On the surface, we aren’t similar at all... I come from the city and have had formal education and a worldview. Rani doesn’t have any of that. But in terms of curiosity, strength, the fact that no one can put you down or show you your place, that you refuse to be put in a box... those are traits I definitely share with Rani. While playing her, I have found another dimension to myself. Playing her has empowered me.

Do the people you play leave a little bit of themselves in you?

A hundred per cent! Initially it used to bother me. After each character and each film I would be like, ‘Who am I?’ I would find certain aspects of my personality changing. But I gradually realised this is part of the creative process. Now I look at each character as someone through whom I can learn a new skill set, a new emotion....

When the first season of Maharani came out, you had your Hollywood biggie Army of the Dead simultaneously playing in theatres globally. We had spoken then about the diversity you were aiming for in your choices. A year on, how much have you been able to maintain that?

Even this year has been about variety. I started off with a big Tamil film like Valimai (co-starring Ajith) in which I did a lot of action which was appreciated. I did a show (Mithya) for Zee5, a song (Shikayat) for Gangubai (Kathiawadi).... I now have Season 2 of Maharani and a film called Double XL (with Sonakshi Sinha), which is about body positivity and female friendship. I have Monica, O My Darling (with Rajkummar Rao and Radhika Apte), which is a mad comedy, and then I have Tarla, based on the life of the renowned chef Tarla Dalal. Then there is Pooja Meri Jaan (with Mrunal Thakur), which is a socially relevant film. When I was younger, I was choosing roles based on what other people were doing. Today, I am like, ‘I am going to do my own thing.’

What brought about this change in mindset?

It was the pandemic. All that time that I spent with myself and so much despair and uncertainty around, brought about some changes. I started journaling in a big way, meditating in a big way.... That’s when I thought, ‘What am I leaving out in the world and what do I want to be remembered for?’ The next thing I shot for was Maharani and I remember walking on to the set and I thought if this is going to be my swansong, I will go all out. Instead of that thought giving me fear, it gave me a lot of fire. The fire to do something... and hopefully something spectacular! (Laughs)

It’s 10 years since your debut film Gangs of Wasseypur. What are your most abiding memories from making that film that’s now become cult?

Oh, we were kids! (Laughs) On the 10th anniversary, I posted some red carpet pictures at Cannes and I didn’t even have a designer outfit. I just borrowed something from my friend Varun Bahl. I didn’t know how to pose on the red carpet.

We had so much fun for three months shooting that film! There was no hierarchy, no star system... there was actually a college fest vibe (laughs) where we were all staying together and making a film together.

At Cannes, we realised that though this is a generational mafia film set in Bihar, it had a resonance all over the world. That’s the magic of good cinema... it manages to cut across. It was a gift from the universe that this became my debut film.

In a 2013 interview with me, you had said, ‘constant scrutiny is something that I signed up for when I became an actress. I try and have fun with it’. Almost a decade later, is that still the mantra?

Did I say that?! What an idiot I was! (Laughs) I think it was the exuberance of doing something new. By the third or fourth film, you have done so many promotions and public outings that you are just so jaded and exhausted... and done with it!

A few years ago, I had an epiphanic moment. I was constantly having the camera lens on my face and getting clicked wherever I went... at the gym, at the airport.... I realised it isn’t good for my mental health.

I know a lot of people who do it and they come in the newspapers daily and it’s great for them. But the kind of person I am, I don’t like it. I don’t like having a camera on my face when I am not at work. There was a phase where all of us were constantly feeling pressured to get clicked in order to remain relevant. But I have dropped out of that... I feel it’s futile and pointless. Earlier, I would be, ‘Oh my God! Should I have worn different shoes with this outfit?’ But now it doesn’t mean anything to my existence.

Now I want to protect my personal life more fiercely than ever. I don’t want my focus to be on creating Instagram reels and what I wear at the airport. I didn’t come to Bombay to be featured in a tabloid’s third page in the ‘spotted’ section... I came here to be an actor. Airport pe kaise jootey pehne ya gym mein kaisa coordinated outfit pehna is not my scene anymore.