It all started with Badla, a mystery thriller that saw Taapsee Pannu sharing screen space in equal measures with Amitabh Bachchan. Then came Game Over, a psychological thriller that was shot simultaneously in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, where she shouldered the film and displayed a doughty performance yet again. The next was an absolute commercial blockbuster, Mission Mangal that featured an ensemble cast. She capped the year with Saand Ki Aankh, which saw her performing the role of over a 60-year-old shooter daadi from Haryana. Now, Pannu has signed over half a dozen films. Excerpts:
How important is diversity to you while choosing a film? Tell us your favourite pick from these four films, and why.
It is a very conscious thing to not repeat because I am a person who gets bored very quickly. I don’t even repeat my holidays. This personality trait of mine reflects in my work as well and, thank god, people are coming up with diverse scripts! It is a perfect time to be an actor.
My favourite pick would be Saand Ki Aankh, it was the riskiest film. I didn’t know if the audience will accept women in their 60s as heroes of the film, and if they will accept us enacting those women on screen. It was not fitting in the conventional commercial space, so we were very unsure, and I stepped out of my comfort zone in every possible way.
How do you feel the year has been for Indian cinema? What were some of the positive changes that you saw?
I think it has been really, really good. The box office has been on fire since the beginning. It began with Uri and it will end with Dabangg and Good Newwz. In between, there has been not just diversity in the subjects, but it saw everything from potboilers and conventional commercials to content-driven films.
We also saw that a nice marriage of content and commercial aspect today ensures that you are going to have footfalls. Earlier, people would wake up to a good film when it would come on OTT platforms or on television, but this year, these films have seen a good result on the box office.
A point in case is Badla, it didn’t have any comedy, song or fight sequence or anything conventional going in its favour. In fact, a lot of things that are there in the film go against conventional commercial cinema – be it two people sitting across a table and talking to each other for a maximum number of minutes in the film, or the antagonist being a woman, or a murder mystery that has a lot of talking... And yet, look at the result (made on a budget of Rs 10 crore, it made over Rs 138 crore at the box office). The response was overwhelming.
And, what are your resolutions for 2020?
I want to try and be my fit best. It is not about getting thinner, but getting strong from within, as I have seen a lot of people having health issues, because they end up putting work before their health, and I have seen some horrible instances of people breaking down, health-wise. I don’t want that to happen to me.