Mithali Has Always Played in the Sun, She'll Have a Tan: Taapsee on Brownfacing

Taapsee Pannu is gearing up for the release of Shabaash Mithu, wherein she plays the role of former Test and ODI captain of the India women's national cricket team, Mithali Raj. Directed by Srijit Mukherji, the film is all set to release on 15 July.

Be it Rashmi Rocket or Saand Ki Aankh, Taapsee has been a part of sports films before. Speaking about the love for this genre Taapsee told The Quint, "I love sports and that has started showing in my work. However, now I feel I have to give this a pause because people have conveniently started coming to me with scripts where the lead character has some kind of a sports background".

Speaking about whether she watched or played cricket as a child Taapsee said, "I never played cricket, but watched the game a lot. I was obsessed with cricket till the whole match-fixing incident happened, and that broke my heart. Two years back, I started re-watching cricket again".

Taapsee also spoke about how different Mithali is from her as a person.

"As people, Mithali and I are at two ends of the spectrum. She is introverted and a woman of very few words. Unlike me, I'm very impulsive. It was a challenge, not just to learn cricket, but also to play a character like her, which is so different from my natural demeanour. It doesn't come naturally to me, to be so less-expressive about things.

Taapsee Pannu

Expressing her views on the recognition of women's cricket in India, Taapsee added, "Mithali started playing in 1999, and she has played till now. But, poeple didn't even know about the existence of women's cricket. You won't believe it, I didn't even have footage to see her play before the years 2006-07. The footage weren't even documented, it's that oblivious." She further said that by the time India had reached the second World Cup Finals in 2017, fortunately, the country started waking up to it, a little bit. But, there's still a long way to go to call it equals.

Shabaash Mithu, directed by Srijit Mukherji, will hit the theatres on 15 July.

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(This interview is from The Quint's archives and is being published on the release of Taapsee Pannu's film 'Shabaash Mithu' directed by Srijit Mukherji.)