I Still Don’t Feel Like an Insider In Bollywood: Taapsee Pannu

As Sujoy Ghosh’s latest thriller Badla gets set to drop into theatres on 8 March, I chat with Taapsee Pannu about her equation with Amitabh Bachchan after Pink, her priorities as an actor and how much of an insider does she feel in Bollywood after delivering some kick-ass performances in films like Mulk and Manmarziyaan recently.

I’m going to start by asking you, there are three aspects which I think must have excited you about Badla when it came to you. One is the fact that Sujoy was directing it, who has Kahaani behind him, second is of course the role and the story, third is getting to work with Mr Bachchan again. Which one of these was the factor which sealed the deal for you?

Taapsee Pannu: I read the story and I was signed up by the producer first. So, for me the story was of prime importance and my role was of prime importance. It was pitched to Sujoy and I asked Sujoy to do it and Sujoy was like not ready to do it at that point and then after a few months, producer Sunir calls me up and he says, Bachchan sir is doing it and Sujoy is doing it and I was like, when I asked him he wasn’t doing it and now Mr Bachchan has agreed to do it so he’s ready to do it. So such is my importance, imagine! So this is the order, so the answer to your question is the story and my role.

Mr Bachchan brings with him a certain kind of seniority and gravitas where ever he goes, how much have you gone beyond the awe now that you’ve worked with him on two films? Basically, what’s your equation with Mr Bachchan right now?

Taapsee Pannu: I think I was beyond that awe after the first day of Pink itself. The first day was a little jittery, because it was the first day and after that I had intentionally switched off that button which told me that he is THE Amitabh Bachchan. Since then we have been on the same page. Be it during Pink, be it during Badla or the time in between when we were meeting up at his place at his birthday dinner, Diwali party or whatever. I’m pretty much at that page with him where he is like my any other co star I get along with. I can talk to him about anything I can talk to Abhishek about. So, it’s not like because he is THE Amitabh Bachchan, I can speak about only these things or I can speak only this way and not that way. I pretty much treat him like my another cool co star. I’m much more comfortable with him than I am with Abhishek actually, because I’ve done two films with him now. So, I can pick up the phone and message him any time and he replies to it and he has this very interesting new fad of sending emojis, so he replies more with emojis than words now. So yeah, so he is a cool co star for me.

As an actor you must be making notes about your co-stars in your mind somewhere like in your diary. Well, this one takes too much time for make-up, this one comes late on set, this one doesn’t stand for my cues, so give us an insight into 3 points that you’ve made about Mr Bachchan.

Taapsee Pannu: I think first point is he rehearses a lot, every actor has his or her school of prep, rehearsal, acting whatever you call it. So, I come from a totally opposite mindset, I am not an actor who can rehearse a lot, it’s my shortcoming as well at times actually, that I cannot recreate the same thing in multiple takes. I spontaneously give it all out in the first one and from there on it starts deteriorating for me, so my directors are warned before hand please make sure you’ve locked the first take of hers for sure because you never know if you’re going to get that same thing ever again. Which is totally opposite for him. So, he rehearses and makes it perfect to the T and then goes for the kill.

So for me, if I rehearse so much, I get spent because I give it all out in rehearsals if I start rehearsing. So that’s the thing that happens with him, I remember during Pink also this happened. So in Pink I used to just run and hide inside my vanity and then Shoojit sir used to tell me I’ll call you when everyone is ready. So, he used to rehearse with Bachchan sir there. Even in this one, so I told Sujoy, call me when he is ready and then at times he’s like mohatarrma aap thodi rehearsal kar lijiye mere saath, then I was like very embarrassed, so that difference is there that he likes a lot of rehearsals and I don’t. So that is one thing that I have noticed about him, and that’s about it actually.

As a viewer, are you fond of any particular genre, does a romantic comedy interest you more than a thriller or a horror film?

Taapsee Pannu: So, I am a very different audience than an actor actually. Because I do the kind of films I do, when I want to go back home and relax I watch films which are like really really stupid, nonsense comedies or just stupid candy-floss kind of films.  It’s my way of unwinding because I do totally opposite kind of films, so I need to relax a little bit so I do that. I remember when I was shooting Mulk, I used to come back and watch Gossip Girl on Netflix which was totally out of sync of everything I was doing but its just so mindless that it helps you just relax. So, that’s my way of choosing films but otherwise I watch all genres, I just don’t watch sex comedies because I don’t find them funny but other than that I watch everything.

As an actor you’ve done a Judwaa - which is like a mass film, and entertainer and you know that it’s going to reach a lot of people even though the critics may not say good things about it. You’ve also done a Pink and a Mulk, which gets critical appreciation, does well at the box-office, has a good role. There’s also a Manmarziyaan, which is terrific, you have a great author backed role, you’ve got critics loving it but it doesn’t do too well at the box-office. As an actor, what does Tapsee feel most satisfied with out of all these. If were to choose one of the, at the end of the day, when you are lying back in your bed, what makes you happy?

Taapsee Pannu: What makes me happy is when I take up a film knowing it will do this much and it actually makes this much. It can be 30 crores it can be 130 crores. Like when I did Mulk, I knew it will do well for the kind of budget the film has and the number of screens we are releasing in. I knew it will do this much, it did that much so that was really... when I took up Judwaa, I knew it would cross 100 crore, it did so that gives me happiness. When I feel that I could predict that my film will do this much. Honestly yes, with Manmarziyaan it went wrong, I did not predict it to stop at a 32 - 33, it should have gone much higher. But such is the thing, you know if everybody can predict everything then everyone will know what’s going to happen.

But for you box-office is like a big factor?

Taapsee Pannu: Yes, yes, that’s the ultimate answer. I’ve gathered as many praises for Manmarziyaan as for a Pink or a Mulk, but people will still not call it a box-office blockbuster of sorts, which is true and I need to accept it somewhere down the line. But it doesn’t give me that happiness as it would have if it had made huge numbers.

But you still don’t regret...

Taapsee Pannu: Of course not, of course not. Given a chance, I would want to do it again.

Having spent over 4 years in the Hindi film industry, I’m talking about Baby that came in 2015...

Taapsee Pannu: I started with Chashme Buddoor, and then came Baby...

Do you now feel like an insider, do you now feel like you are able to step into inaccessible zones than you were before?

Taapsee Pannu: No, I don’t feel like an insider, but I think that’s an outsider syndrome that’s attached to most of us no matter how much successful most of us get but still somewhere down the line you feel you never know what’s going to happen with you if your few films don’t do well, maybe you know you’ll have to start from scratch, you don’t know if you’ll get more work or no. Somewhere that fear probably exists in most of us outsider’s minds for the longest time no matter how successful they get. I don’t think I’ve become an insider or I still think I’m not there in the inner circles that exist in the industry and that’s also got to do with the fact that I’m not very socially active in the industry beyond my workplace.

I do lose out on a lot of films that I could have gotten if I was active in certain social circuits. But then a lot of energy and effort would have gone into socialising in that way which, I don’t mind socialising, I am a very extrovert person, I can talk on a wrong number for a very long time, I’m that extrovert person. But socially active with an agenda in mind to get films is not something that I can look at myself in the mirror, that I’m being nice to people because I want work from them. That somehow doesn’t resonate with me.

That’s why I am extremely happy and friendly with everyone I work with, we go watch movies together, we chill together, I call people home for dinner, I got my new apartment, so I’ve called most of the people I’ve worked with for home for housewarming, I do all that  but with people who I already have a rapport with. With an agenda I can’t make a rapport. So that is why I think I lose out on a few things. It’s a difficult thing for me to break that glass wall of penetrating a inner circle which I feel the only way I will be able to do it is through my work, is if eventually my work makes so much of noise that they don’t have an option other than to acknowledge my presence. So I think that’s the only way out for me.

When you spoke up about being replaced in a film recently it came as a surprise - because it’s something that I’m sure happens with a lot of actors in the industry but nobody ever speaks up or confronts a producer like that. You obviously didn’t want to take that route of keeping silent.

Taapsee Pannu: All of us get replaced, I also have gotten replaced, not once but multiple times, but those have happened at a primary stage. For the background I come from I know for every film for the first few years in my life and even now for that matter there are roles where a director or producer meets multiple actresses before they decide which one is perfect for it and different parameters decide that and we know it’s like that. But it’s a different case when you block someone’s dates and then you get to know a month before that you’ve been replaced already some time back and you have not been informed professionally in time and that is wrong.

So, that’s why I called out and it was not to target a particular person or a producer or anyone else it was to target this particular practice that is wrong and it shouldn’t happen to any other actor. I could have furnished proofs of the fact that I was asked for dates, I could have done all that and made it ugly and bitter but that was not my agenda, my agenda was to just call out the practice that it’s unfair. My agenda was not to shame the people. So that’s why I didn’t do all those cheap stuff of putting out messages and all that that were exchanged. I don’t think I did anything wrong, I voiced what is right. I didn’t intend to target a person, that’s why it’s fair, I’m not hurting a particular person, I don’t like this practice of doing this and that’s why I brought it up.

My last question, I threw this at Sujoy as well, there’s a lot of curiosity and there is a strong rumour that Shah Rukh Khan is a part of Badla, are you going to confirm that for us?

Taapsee Pannu: Did you get an answer from Sujoy? Did he even answer? I don’t think he would have, so I think you just wait and watch for the film at least keep something for the thriller.