From Odisha To New York, Meet Siraj Huda, The Accidental Actor

From Odisha To New York, Meet Siraj Huda, The Accidental Actor

From milking cows in Nepal, teaching ice-skating in Dubai to taking an unconventional path to an acting career, Siraj Huda’s story is both interesting and inspiring. His unwavering belief in dreams and extraordinary efforts to achieve his goals has made Huda come a long way from being a village lad in Odisha to an established actor in New York City.

Siraj in Broadway Play King Lahiri in 2018 in Manhattan

A major part of Huda’s childhood was spent in exploring new places and experiencing different cultures. Since his father worked in the Indian railways, he was always on the move and had to change locations every 2-3 years. The only constant was his summer vacation in his village Sardhapur where he reminisces about spending time with his cousins and being very mischievous. Huda spent most of his school life-changing different places and finally completed his graduation in Commerce from PN College, Khurda, staying in a hostel till 1978. Despite wanting to pursue Masters and study further, he was forced to support his family. Huda moved to Nepal where he managed a dairy farm for two years. As the job did not excite him, he came to Bhubaneswar and worked as a tour guide for a travel agency for about 6 months. This job required him to travel around Bhubaneswar, Puri and Konark with tourists. 

Siraj in BTS Of Short Movie Torn Pages

“Trust me, I had a lot of fun talking to new people on sightseeing every other day. I used to ask tourists to tip me in dollars as I aspired to go to the USA to pursue an MBA,” chuckles Huda.

However, the fun was short-lived as his sister who was staying in Dubai summoned him in 1980. He went to Dubai and started working as part of the production team for a newspaper named Khaleej Times.  Huda was more interested in covering and writing stories than in production. This inquisitiveness for stories led him to an ice-skating rink which was located in the middle of a desert. He did a story on the rink and became friends with the manager who later offered him a job. Huda joined the rink, got himself trained and even earned a certificate as an ice-skating instructor from the Ice Skating Institute of America. Back in Odisha, Huda’s feat got attention and Odia daily The Samaj published his story titled “India’s First Ice-Skating Instructor”.

Siraj in BTS Of Short Movie Undefined in Mumbai 2018

Huda’s life in Dubai was sorted – an exciting job, good pay and an amiable employer. “But a part of me felt incomplete. You know the feeling when you desire something but don’t get it? I was in a dilemma whether to continue my life there or follow my dream of completing my Masters in the USA,” he says. Huda chose the former, quit his job and moved to the USA. He enrolled himself in Savannah State College, GA in 1988. After completing his Masters, he went into publishing again thinking it would boost his resume. He worked there for the next seven years and saw that most of his friends were leaning towards IT. 

Siraj with Dev Patel, Anurag Kashyap & Neha Dhupia

“The boom was during Y2K when most of my Odia friends had already started working in big IT companies and were earning well,” he says. This prompted Huda to learn coding and he took admission in a part-time course to learn the basics. “I won’t say I mastered coding but I knew enough to get into an IT firm. And most importantly, I was hired because I had an MBA degree along with the basic software skills,” reveals Huda.

For the next several years, he worked in the software industry TSC, New York City enjoying its perks – a comfortable lifestyle with job security. “I guess this is the American Dream people talk about,” laughs Huda. But as all good things come to an end, the economy crashed in the 2008 recession and like many others, he too was laid off. 

Siraj with Late Farook Sheikh, Nargis Fakri

Huda’s amiable nature helped him bag a role as an extra in movies and TV shows. He gave it a try and soon got a small speaking role in a big movie Money Never Sleeps, Wall Street 2 in 2009. “Although my part was cut, I was still paid the royalties as I had joined the SAG AFTRA union while working in that movie,” he says. SAG AFTRA(Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) is a labour union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, recording artists, singers, voice actors, and other media professionals worldwide.

 
Siraj with Mira Nair And Nawazuddin

This paved Huda’s entry into the acting world and since then, he has worked in many short movies, TV series and independent feature films. He has also recently started scriptwriting and producing short films. 

What makes Huda stand out from the crowd is his resilient energy to never give up. Growing up, he had difficulty in reading and understanding things and spent 40 years of his life wondering about the rationale behind it. “After moving to NYC, I came across a book on dyslexia and I felt I could relate to it. I visited a therapist and was diagnosed with a mild form of the condition. But over the years, I have learnt to cope with it,” the actor informs.

Siraj with Nawazzudin at Film Festival Party in NYC 2014

A self-made man who considers himself an accidental actor, Huda’s success story seems to be straight out of a fairy tale where one achieves everything at the whip of a wand. But there is more to his tale. A small-town boy from Khurda to an established actor, writer and filmmaker, Huda overcame many hurdles and difficulties to achieve his dreams. His varied life experiences have even contributed to his ability to get under the skin of the characters he portrays in the movies.