Asia’s largest storytelling festival, Spoken Fest 2025 in Mumbai, saw Hindi Film Actor Huma Qureshi in conversation with Tess Joseph about her debut novel, Zeba: An Accidental Superhero at the Mehfil stage at Jio World Garden.
The debut novelist spoke about how her protagonist; the “accidental super hero” is an imperfect saviour but has enough inner strength to add value to the world while going through a personal transformation. Huma felt that such imperfect saviours deserved more representation in pop culture.
Huma also remarked how she started writing the book every morning with a vengeance during the COVID-19 pandemic, and regaled the audience by reading out a part from the novel.
When talking about her new book, Zeba: An Accidental Superhero, actor Huma Qureshi said, “I think there’s a Zeba in all of us. I love the idea of people not being perfect and being misfits. There’s a superhero in all of us – a little flawed and not so perfect but completely capable of saving the world.”
She further described her writing process, saying, “While writing is really cathartic for me, it does help being an actor. I’m not a trained novelist. I can think in terms of characters. When writing, I think of myself as a character and imbibe it – I am in a free-flowing state of subconscious writing and that’s how the book came to be.”
Not only that, but in a fun rapid-fire with Tess Joseph, Huma discussed everything – from what turns her on creatively (a good book, amazing food, and travelling), a moment in her life that she would like to frame to a superhuman power she would like to have, her love for barra tikka kebabs and her favourite swear words.
