‘I had to psych myself every day’

Taapsee Pannu says she had to go on a vacation to recover from <em>Pink</em>

Indian Bollywood actress Taapsee Pannu poses for a photograph during a promotional event for the forthcoming Hindi film 'Pink' directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury in Mumbai on August 9, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / STR

F or someone who has never entered a court, playing a murder accused in a drama like Pink can be quite draining. Taapsee says she accepted the film as it was being backed by Shoojit Sircar. She was also able to connect with the film’s idea and its relevance in today’s troubled times. Shoots, though, were hardly a walk in the park. “The role was mentally draining… I had to psych myself every day. I had to hammer into my brain the notion that my character had been sexually molested.”

She says she needed to go on a holiday after the film to recover. “After months of thinking on those lines, your brain starts accepting it as the truth. It begins to seem like an unforgettable memory. I had to take a long break to get it all out of my system.”

Taapsee has already begun working on her next,

Naam Shabana, and says there’s a long way to go before she does a Tamil film. On rumours about being offered a biopic on civil rights activist Irom Sharmila, she says, “The makers have approached me, but I haven’t heard the script yet.”

vishal menon