Women’s Day: If you don’t fit in, stand out, says Huma Qureshi

Ever since her entry in Bollywood, Huma Qureshi has always been picked on for her weight, but that hasn’t deterred the Badlapur (2015) actor from being comfortable in her own skin. On International Women’s Day (March 8), Huma says that she has also been advised by well-wishers to behave in a certain way, but the actor says that she hasn’t paid heed to stuff like that. “I have been told too much — to talk less, to keep my opinions to myself, to not sound intelligent — all this was told to me, so that I could fit in. But I never thought I fit in anyway. So If you don’t fit in, at least stand out,” says the actor.

Huma also admits that the naysayers commenting on her weight and body have finally ‘grown up’ as the number of people bullying her has gone down. “I have always been cool and open about my body. Today, everyone all over the world is condemning body-shaming. It’s just not cool. Thankfully, in India, I think the bullies have finally grown up. People will bully you and tell you all sorts of things about your body, face, attitude but that is also because we have been getting bullied. Finally, Indian women have realised that it’s wrong to allow this to happen. Women and people in general, shouldn’t be subjected to discrimination on the basis of weight, colour or creed. We are subscribing to the wrong norms of beauty. Beauty has no set standard. It is honestly, in diversity,” she says.

Though she is quite confident in her own skin, Huma does admit that she has her own set of insecurities, like every other normal person. “I am an insecure person. I have my own insecurities about lots of things but I am pretty secure as an actor. This is the only thing I honestly know. So I don’t want to cheat myself. My father was very against me doing films but today, he is proud of my achievements. I want to live life with the choices I made,” she says.