MUMBAI,  29 OCTOBER,  2019 (GPN) :Taapsee Pannu, whose latest release Saand Ki Aankh is getting a good word of mouth at the box office, opened up about how she deals with the audience expectation, playing glamorous roles and her next film Thappad, that’s scheduled to release on Women’s Day 2020.

Taapsee Pannu has had a mixed bag this 2019. While she was a part of varied films like Badla, Game Over and Mission Mangal, her latest release Saand Ki Aankh, where her part (Prakashi Tomar) along with her co-star Bhumi Pednekar (Chandro Tomar), is receiving a lot of critical acclaim.

So, does always delivering a near perfect act on the big screen become challenging? In a candid chat with GPN, Taapsee spoke about why she is happy with all the expectations that come her way, how doing a Judwaa 2 was important for her and what she does when she finds herself amid a controversy.

Here are excerpts from the interview :

Q. There is a certain level of expectation that now gets attached to your films. Is it too much to handle?

Taapsee: No no… it’s very good. I want it. I want this expectation pressure because if the audience won’t have any expectation from me, there’s no use. At least I have an image in my audience’s mind that she will do something like this. That’s the niche I’m trying to create with my audience so that they feel if I have done a film, it’ll be worth their time and money, and it’ll be something different.

Q. Do you think you have evolved in, say last 5 years?

Taapsee: As an actor, I’ve changed totally because I’m not a trained actor. I’ve learned on set with every film. You’re living with a character for 30-40 days. Every day for 12 hours you’re psyching your brain in that character. It will change something in you mentally. I say it in a funny way, but actually, I’m becoming a little psycho after every film because you’re just suddenly making yourself believe that you are this person. You’re forcing yourself to believe you’re someone else for 50 days at a stretch. Of course, this is gonna change something in you.

Q. You’ve been in a few controversies recently.

Taapsee: But that’s good, that means you are successful. That means you are capturing attention. If you aren’t relevant, why will anyone spend their time and effort on you? Who has so much time in this age?

Q. You don’t shy away from putting out your opinion, do you?

Taapsee: If I’m not harming anyone, I don’t have any reason to shy away or be scared. If I have an opinion on something which is affecting me or people around me, I will speak up. It’s not like I’ll poke my nose in everyone’s business, or if there’s some topic I strongly feel about personally, I will talk about it.

Q. After getting tagged with ‘content driven’ cinema, will you now accept a role that’s only about adding glam quotient in a film?

Taapsee: Now, the lines have blurred. There’s a film that I’m going to do very soon, which will be glamorous but it will be substantial also. There will be something very substantial in it because the lines are blurring now in the cinema.

Q. But you did Judwaa 2, and that time many people said this isn’t what you are meant to do.

Taapsee: Because of that film, today, people call me a mainstream name. If I wouldn’t have done Judwaa 2, they would have kept me as an offbeat actress. Now, I get to do different cinema in mainstream. Or else they would’ve typecast me in that indie zone where I only do offbeat stuff. That’s why I had to do a Judwaa 2.

Q. How is Thappad shaping up?

Taapsee: It’s a story of 8 women woven around my character. It’s gonna be a treat on Women’s Day. I wanted to have a Women’s Day release. Coincidentally I had Badla, which was not really planned for a Women’s Day, it just so happened. But then it worked. I was talking to Anubhav (Sinha, director) sir, that I would really want my film to release on Women’s Day. He said let’s do Thappad. So we planned everything in such a way to release it on Women’s Day. ENDS