After Pink , the film industry is seeing Taapsee Pannu in a new light. She is no longer interested in shining in the reflection of a star. She is happy with her choices and wants to assert that heroism is not about gender through her upcoming film Naam Shabana where she plays an intelligence officer on a mission.
Edited excerpts:
Has the industry accepted you or do you still feel like an outsider?
What you see of me in Bollywood is courtesy my films in the South as it is they who have made me the actor and the person I am today. The journey in Bollywood is very smooth and upward and I do not have much to complain. I think I had taken calculative steps and well-thought out decisions which were the result of my experience in the Tamil and Telugu films. I accept that there is a lot of nepotism in Bollywood but I have not seen the brutal side of it and I knew that I have to make my way out of it through my work and media support. I do not attend parties more often because I thought people may think that being an outsider I am trying hard to fit in. But recently I attended the success party of Badrinath Ki Dulhania where I met many people and everyone was so warm to me. So based on my experience, I do not feel as an outsider in Bollywood.
What comparisons do you draw as a female actor between Bollywood and film industries in the South?
Be it work wise or atmosphere wise, there is no difference apart from the language part. As a female actor, I can say that Bollywood has offered me more varied roles which I had not done in the South. Also, I am a girl next door for my Hindi audience which gives freedom to writers to write varied roles for me. Though in Telugu films, I have a more glamorous and diva kind of image but I was never attributed the image of a ‘sex symbol’. And the audience do praise female actors’ works and fine actresses like Saundarya, Vijayashanti and Sridevi came from the South. They are known for their acting skills.
Of all the roles you have played, which one is closest to the real Taapsee? Do you think women, in general, have become assertive about their choices and that is reflecting on screen?
I am happy that I have been offered such a diversity of roles but my role in the small film Runningshaadi.com is the one in which I was myself and I did not have to prepare as I am the same person in my real life which I have played. I think cinema is a mirror of the society. Those changes, which are happening around us, can be seen in our films. I agree that women have taken the centre stage in a lot of places and it is the reason we have a film centred around women almost every month which was not the case earlier. I take it as a progressive step.
There are not many female actors doing action on screen. Don’t you think that breaking bones on screen are easier than breaking stereotypes?
I can say Naam Shabana will take action to a next level and I wish people accept female actors doing action on screen.
I have undergone training in mixed martial arts, judo and krav maga for the role of Shabana which required much more intense action than what is normally seen in Bollywood. I hope it to be a game changer because I am a girl in the film who is doing things which a typical girl will not do and doing action makes me feel at par with men. I am fighting a battle for gender equality and it is the best film to break the stereotype of male heroes and prove that heroism is not about gender and even a girl can be a hero in any given situation.
