Huma Qureshi: My dad gets excited when I do food films as if I am taking the legacy forward

Actor Huma Qureshi says her film Tarla, based on the life of late chef and author Tarla Dalal, alongside Sharib Hashmi, is very close to her heart. And that’s because of her father.

Her father Saleen Qureshi runs a chain of restaurants, and she exclaims, “food runs in our DNA”.

“This is my second food film after Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana (2012), and my dad really gets excited when I do such films, as if I am taking the legacy forward,” she adds.

Qureshi goes on to share that she identified with Tarla’s story as a woman, saying “especially, how it meant to do what she did back in the day and go forth and be like the OG home chef with her cook books and show”.

Tarla Dalal was a popular chef, author, and writer, known for her cooking show and cook books. Talking about working on her biopic, Qureshi admits that it was challenging as it required a lot of prep. Thanking writers of the film, Piyush Gupta and Gautam Ved, she says, “Despite being men, they understood everything about Tarla’s journey, process, dreams and more. I thank them with all my heart for being such wonderful, sensitive and empathetic men. We need more people like that.”

“My job was to see her videos, energy, hand movement, and everything. It’s been a challenge but the best compliment I got was when Tarla’s daughter came to me and said ‘You really got the essence of my mother’,” she adds.

Besides preparing for the film, did she follow Tarla Dalal’s cooking videos while growing up? “I didn’t follow her videos but I definitely had her cook books at home. I wore a similar saree for the shoot of the film and they (filmmakers) gave me a cook book with my picture on it, and I had a very surreal moment,” Qureshi tells us.

When it comes to her own cooking skills, the 36-year-old confesses that they are not the best. “I tried some of those recipes, my cooking is more of an antics of Tarla’s cooking. I can make good dal and pasta. To eat, my top 3 picks are keema kaleji, bheja curry and gustabi,” she laughs.

Sharing a childhood memory of how her mom cooked a mango ice cream once, Qureshi shares, “When I was a child, my mom made mango ice cream and I was opening the fridge again and again to see if it froze or not. And, my mom yelled at me to not open it, it’s not set. I got so impatient and said, ‘bahar se hi le aate na fir’.”