Amrin Qureshi—newbie with a goal

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It’s a piquant situation, some would say. Amrin Qureshi makes her debut in next week’s release, Bad Boy, opposite star-son Namashi Chakraborty.  In normal circumstances, as happened with Kumar Gaurav in Love Story, Sunny Deol in Betaab, Akshaye Khanna in Himalayputra or Fardeen Khan in Prem Aggan, the focus would be on the star-son. But over here, Amrin is the producer, Sajid Qureshi’s daughter!

My first shot at her is: does she still feel that the focus of promotions is too much on her co-star, who is a celebrity-son? Maybe from the media’s side if not from the film’s team?

She smiles and says, “Now that’s a question I am always scared about! But, honestly, I don’t think so! I am not so insecure! There are so many newcomers coming up today.”

So did she have this great, old childhood ambition to become an actress? Her laugh twinkles across the room as she shakes her head, “Actually, you know, I was frustrated because I could not decide what I wanted to be! My friends would tell me that I should become an actress! But I decide to focus on my studies and became a topper. At various stages, I wanted to be an airhostess, a teacher and so on. After I passed out of school, I became interested in Business, and dad, who had come to Mumbai from our hometown Hyderabad to become something on his own and went on to be a successful businessman, often said that I was a better brain at it than he was!”

Amrin goes on, “I passed by BBA (Bachelors in Business Administraton) and that’s when I suddenly developed an interest in acting! Initially, I was hesitant and kept this to myself as we came from a conservative family, so I was a little apprehensive that my family would impose curbs on me!”

She adds, “Nothing like that happened, though I will always seek my family’s consent in whatever I want to do!”

Until the big break, Amrin has to be content with watching movies—Sridevi was a favorite, while the turnaround film was Om Shanti Om, when she would print out Shah Rukh Khan’s and Deepika Padukone’s pictures in her father’s office and paste them in her cupboard.

Amrin terms Bad Boy as a relatable story of two opposites who fall in love: her character is a “simple, innocent, obedient, scholarly Bengali girl, the type who  scores 996 of 1000. I fall in love with Raghu, a nithalla (idler), who is a “bad boy” for all but a good boy for me, as he helps me fulfill my small wishes.”

Amrin initially did a short course—a mere two weeks!—in acting (“As I was also set to graduate then!”) and had signed her first film five years ago. “It had some international shooting and I even made my passport! But the film was dropped!” she recalls. “My father told me not to look back, and move on. And this time, I was auditioned by Rajkumar Santoshi-ji!”

Her director happened to chide her during the first shoot and Amrin was terrified. “I just went to a corner and wept! But he came to me and explained that he did that just because he wanted the best out of me! What I have learnt from him is what I would imbibe after making two movies, not one.”

The ice with her co-star broke quite fast, and the two newcomers became comfortable with each other, as they had obvious common ground. “Namashi’s father, Mithun (Chakraborty)-da was very helpful and supportive too. He even invited dad and me to his house and served us mutton biryani!” she says.

Overall, Amrin found the acting experience enjoyable and especially enjoyed the song-and-dance routine, as the atmosphere tended to be lighter. But now, the youngster has decided that she will choose her next film with an acting-oriented role. She has a definite aim to go places and make her own niche among the multitude of new faces. “I would love to do OTT series too and even regional films. I am from Hyderabad, so I am even fluent in Telugu!”

So is her father planning a film with her? “Kitna karenge (How many films will he do for me)?” she asks. “I think all newcomers launched by their parents should get such one chance. After that, they have to prove themselves.”