Video: Bollywood star Huma Qureshi turns diabolical in her new thriller series, ‘Mithya’

Move over Annalise Keating, the charismatic law professor played by Viola Davis in the wickedly suspenseful ‘How To Get Away With Murder’, and make way for Huma Qureshi who plays a complex Hindi academic in her latest series ‘Mithya’, out on Zee5 on February 18.

Qureshi has a thing or two to teach her loyal fan base about taking a stab at a compelling thriller series for the first time in her career.

“Comparing me to Annalise Keating is a huge compliment. I would love to be India’s Annalise Keating … My character is a Hindi Literature professor in a college. A case of plagiarism among her students sparks off a series of events leading to some very sinister ramifications,” said Qureshi in an interview over Zoom with Gulf News.

Directed by Rohan Sippy, the series, set in Darjeeling, also marks the debut of actress Bhagyashree’s daughter Avantika Dassani who plays the student Rhea who is singled out by Qureshi’s character Juhi Chaturvedi for plagiarism. A murder is thrown into the murky mix and two are found to be the prime suspects given their turbulent history together.

“Constantly, the blame keeps shifting from one person to the other and you never know who really committed the crime. The buck keeps passing through all these characters …,” said Qureshi, who calls herself “a huge fan of the thriller genre” and loves shows like ‘How To Get Away With Murder.’

Qureshi, who was discovered by Bollywood’s maverick director Anurag Kashyap and debuted in ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’, was last seen in ‘Maharani’, a slow burn political drama set in Bihar in which she played a reluctant state head struggling to find acceptance and respect. In 2019, she also played the lead in the dystopian Netflix drama ‘Leila’.

“I have never dabbled in a thriller genre before in my career ... ‘Mithya’ is diametrically opposite to ‘Maharani’ and that makes it incredibly intriguing for me,” said Qureshi.

The trailer of ‘Mithya’ seems to suggest that her personal life with her husband isn’t going smooth as well with an illicit affair brewing on the side, something that her student Rhea has stumbled upon. So that strand begs the question if her professor is deliberately trying to sabotage her student for knowing too much.

“Nice and good partners don’t make for a thriller…. Bad husbands and wives are a basic prerequisite in this genre. None of the characters in this series are straight-up, including me. Don’t take us at face value because we are all possibly lying,” said Qureshi.

She’s no staid professor in this one and the mushrooming of web platforms in India has helped her hugely in her career to play roles that aren’t straight-laced and one-dimensional.

“When you think of a professor, a certain image comes to your mind. But here we are exploring professors as human beings and the OTT (streaming) revolution has helped us explore such roles. It’s a great time for good storytelling and good content ... These days merely packaging a film well won’t just do, you have to put out interesting content that makes it worth their time and buck,” said Qureshi.

Qureshi shot for over 35 days straight in Darjeeling for this series and believes that the vibe of the popular hill-station lends a great deal of atmospherics for her eerie suspenseful show, filled with twisted characters. They were all a thick unit who shot from start to finish like a wholesome work family who were on a mission to make a compelling web series.

“Remember ‘Main Hoon Na’, that was the last film shot on that college campus. But what we are attempting is very different from that film. When a thriller is set in small town, the interpersonal dynamics are so nuanced and so deep,” said Qureshi.

The series also marks the departure from the ‘all women are essentially good and pure’ trope, which is quite popular in Hindi shows according to the actress.

“There’s no mean bone in our bodies is such a cliché, right? What’s a good man or a woman? Does a man who stand up against the big, bad villain a good man or a man who turn the cheek other way a good man? I feel we often try to put our women in boxes about who makes for a good or bad woman or vamp … We have moved far from that narrative in ‘Mithya’.”

According to this actress, the series explores the human psyche in all its glory and gore as they make good and bad choices in life.

“It doesn’t make them good or bad because nobody’s always good and nobody’s always bad. ‘Mithya’ teaches you that,” said Qureshi.

‘Mithya’ is out on Zee5 on February 18