Huma Qureshi talks about her film ‘Tarla’

• Huma Qureshi says The movie Tarla, which is based on the life of the late chef and  Tarla Dalal, is very passionate about it.
• The 36-year-old woman is honest enough to admit that her cooking abilities are not the finest.
• Qureshi recalls how her mother once made mango ice cream while she was a child.

Actress Huma Qureshi says she and Sharib Hashmi’s movie Tarla, which is based on the life of the late chef and novelist Tarla Dalal, are very passionate about it. And her father is to blame for that.

She says, “Food runs in our DNA” as her father Saleen Qureshi owns a number of restaurants.

“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 continues by adding that as a woman, she could relate to Tarla’s experience, “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”.

Chef, author, and writer Tarla Dalal was well-known for her cooking shows and cookbooks. Qureshi acknowledges that working on her biopic was difficult because it took a lot of preparation. She expresses gratitude to Piyush Gupta and Gautam Ved, the film’s writers, “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.

Did she watch Tarla Dalal’s culinary tutorials growing up in addition to prepping for the movie? “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.

The 36-year-old woman is honest enough to admit that her cooking abilities are not the finest.
“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.

Qureshi recalls how her mother once made mango ice cream while she was a child, “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’.”