Huma has put in a bit of a curveball on the July docket for us. In 90 seconds, the Baby Do Die Do promo makes of her a kind of death-defying, silent type, and you can feel the buzz building for the 3rd of July. It’s also putting a female-driven face-off in play with Alpha on that very day.
The one everyone is on about
It starts with a bit of a shiver: a girl will have you believe her tale is one of her own demise. But then you get the turn of it – she is in fact speaking for her sister, who is both deaf and mute and is out there in Mumbai with an unflinching air about her. Fast forward 15 years and Huma is your next-door neighbour, or so it seems, as she hovers behind a scarf on a wet local train. Some ruffians make a move on her at a bus stop and a red umbrella is all it takes to put them in their place. You are left with the impression of ‘India’s first desi hitwoman’. A cop tells her to ‘make a move before you’re gone’. Seema Pahwa’s character can only give a shrug; she knows better than to think this one will put up or shut down without putting her life on the line. There is a grimy, almost fun side to the ruthlessness here.
And a pun to go with it
‘Do Die Do’ is more than a title, it’s the character’s way of thinking. Put it in Hindi and you have ‘Kar Mar Kar’, and the teaser insinuates it could be as much a Maharashtrian last name as anything, maybe even from her own family tree.
Huma is not just in front of the lens
She is putting in some work as a producer for the first time, alongside her brother Saqib Saleem. They have put up their own flag with Saleem Siblings, after Saqib was on board for Single Salma. That one didn’t do well in the box office, though it made its way to Netflix. Huma doesn’t mince words when you ask her why. ‘There was no promotion, no money put into marketing, nothing. You couldn’t hear a peep about it…’ ‘Folks don’t really want to go to the movies anymore. I worry it will put an end to things if we only have the big blockbusters and the machismo. It is the smaller, mid-size films that have been and will be the ones to keep us in business.’ The figures for Single Salma were hard to swallow. ‘Under 200 screens in the city’, and in Andheri? ‘One show at 4:30 for 250 rupees.’ With Baby Do Die Do, the siblings are after a different outcome.
What you can expect from the film
Nachiket Samant has a story about a serial killer in Mumbai who is for the most part in silence, save for the voice of her dead sister. It is a hook that gives you some dark humour right out of the gate.
You have Huma, but also Chunky Panday, Sikandar Kher, Seema Pahwa, Vidya Malvade and Rachit Singh. It is less of a by-the-book noir and more of a free-form kind of energy. Since the teaser came out on Tuesday, the reaction has been good. People like the way it is put together, the offbeat feel of it. It has that slickness to it, but with the monsoons of Mumbai providing the atmosphere and the threat.
July and beyond
Mark 3 July, 2026 for Baby Do Die Do. You will be looking at a tussle with Alpha, the YRF Spy Universe entry with Alia Bhatt and Sharvari, which we will have our first look at on 10 June. To have two women-led pictures on the same Friday is not every day. We will have to see if Huma’s oddball assassin can draw in a crowd once the Alpha hype is in full swing. Some dates to put in your diary: – 3 July, 2026 for the release – 10 June for the Alpha preview – The teaser we saw on Tuesday – The kind of tone people are lapping up on the internet You can read the writing on the wall. A strong lead, a bit of Mumbai in the mix, and let the prop speak for itself. If what we have seen is any indication, this could be the kind of underdog success Huma has been saying the industry is in need of.
