You might compare her to Preity Zinta, thanks to her dimple and bubbly character, but Delhi girl Taapsee Pannu is in Bollywood on a mission. The 24-year-old Pannu wants to make you laugh hard, with her version (actually, David Dhawan’s) of a classic. Best known in the Tamil industry for playing Anglo - Indian Irene Claude in the National Award-winning ‘Aadukalam’, alongside Dhanush, Pannu is eight movies old and ready for Dhawan’s comedy club. In ‘Chashme Buddoor’, the actress plays Neha, a role Deepti Naval immortalized in 1981. More from her:
My role in ‘Chashme Buddoor’ is completely different from what it was in the original. I am a college-going girl, with a typical hyper character. I am adventurous, naughty, my mind works really fast and I play a lot of pranks in the movie. Except for the story line, nothing else is the same, including the sets. I think it is funnier than the original. About being chased by three men, well, the ratio of men to women is reducing. So, obviously four guys will hit on one (laughs). But yes, it is a different experience to be cast against three men.
Everyone in the Tamil and Telugu industry is offered movies in Hindi, and I was not running behind roles in Bollywood. It was too risky for me to jump into something like that. I took my time and after being recommended by director Puri, I got this role. They wanted a girl with the charm of Preity Zinta for the movie, someone who is bubbly like her.
I am not well-versed in Telugu or Tamil but Hindi is my stronghold. I can deliver dialogues naturally. Even for this movie, I never memorized dialogues, and would remember the key points and delivery naturally. We were in Goa the entire party season (October- January).
I am neither a party person nor do I drink, but the guys had a great time. They would often go partying and visit the casinos. We often spent time on the beach and the sunsets were brilliant.
I have a completely different look unlike the original where Deepti Naval wore only Indian clothes. In this movie, I am a perfect Goan girl, with the funky clothes. My hair is straightened in the movie and I spent almost one and a half hours every day to straighten it. That said, some of the directors in the Telugu film industry have actually cast me in their movies simply because of my curly hair.