Taapsee Pannu on playing Mithali Raj, working with Shah Rukh Khan and pleasing her audience

The actor who plays former Indian women's cricket team skipper Mithali Raj in the sportswoman's biopic has two more exciting upcoming releases

The last time a Taapsee Pannu film was released in theatres, it was still pre-pandemic times. The critically-acclaimed Thappad saw the actor win accolades for her performance as a homemaker dealing with the aftermath of being slapped by her loving husband. There were a few OTT releases post the Anubhav Sinha-directorial but it is only now that she has a big-ticket release lined up in Shabaash Mithu, a biopic on the life of Mithali Raj, former captain of the Indian women’s cricket team–considered one of the greatest female cricketers in the profession.

If Pannu is feeling the jitters about having a theatrical release after almost two years, it doesn’t show, at least not until she admits to it. “Yes, it’s making me nervous. I feel the pressure, and rightfully so. The day a theatrical release stops making me nervous, I think it will be time to change my job because then it means I have become indifferent,” she states.

Defining roles

In Pannu’s acting career of over a decade, indifferent is hardly a label one can associate her with. Starting her journey from regional cinema in 2010 when she made her debut in the Telugu film ‘Jhummandi Naadam’, she has gone on to become one of the most sought-after names in Hindi cinema today. Whether it was the determined girl fighting a case against molestation in ‘Pink’ or kicking some serious ass in the action-thriller ‘Naam Shabana’ and breathing life into the mercurial red-headed Rumi of ‘Manmarziyaan’–the Delhi girl has proved her mettle playing varied characters.

Her performances in the last couple of years have led her to being associated with cinema that is fairly unusual. No running around the trees and singing love songs in the rain for her? “Those films don’t come to me,” she candidly admits, “They probably get discussed in their offices and they decide that I won’t do them and there is no point even asking me. The films I get are those that nobody else wants to do, are too risky to do, too out-of-the-box or too prep-heavy,” she shares.

Consider her last few roles and you would probably find yourself nodding your head in agreement. The bored housewife of ‘Haseen Dilruba’ who plots her husband’s death, the athlete who undergoes gender testing in ‘Rashmi Rocket’ or the girlfriend racing against time to save her boyfriend in the comedy-thriller ‘Looop Lapeta’ – these are all movies that may or may not have found their audience, but they have definitely placed Pannu in a league of her own.

Donning a cricket captain’s avatar

With her upcoming release Shabaash Mithu, the actor hopes to continue giving the audience yet another shade of her as an artiste. Apart from playing cricket for the first time in her life, the other challenge she had to overcome was playing Mithali Raj on-screen. “Mithali is laid-back. She doesn’t emote much, doesn’t talk much and it’s difficult to read her. I am just the opposite,” she shares. To display the cricketer’s joy, anger, happiness and other emotions within a narrow framework of expressions was a task and took a lot from her as an actor, she contends.

Pannu breaks into a smile as she recalls her mother watching the movie recently. “During the interval she observed, ‘you don’t have many dialogues in the film’. I had to remind her it’s Mithali’s biopic, not mine!” she chuckles.

This is Pannu’s second sports film in two years, the first one being last year’s ‘Rashmi Rocket’. “I think I forget what it feels like to be an actor; I feel more like an athlete these days!” she mentions lightheartedly. On a more serious note, she observes that training non-stop for the sports-oriented movies has taken a toll on her in these two years. “I had no life beyond training and shooting. For the past two years, I have been waking up every morning around five-thirty/six, training for two-and-a-half hours and then shooting for 12 hours or so. Returning home, I would be forced to sleep immediately so I could get enough sleep to be ready for the next day. I have been living this life for two years and it’s taken a toll on me,” she states.

Aside from work

Pannu realises that she needs to have a life beyond work and she isn’t shy about seeking help from mental health professionals as and when the need arises. “Acting is a very demanding profession both physically and mentally, more so when you are shouldering the film and probably face the maximum repercussions, good or bad. It is not a very rosy position to be in all the time,” she admits.

To disassociate herself further from the demands of her profession and to get some much-needed ‘me-time’, Pannu usually escapes on a holiday to an international destination ever so often. “I like going out of the country so that I am forced to take a break from all work-related conversations. Also, there is no temptation of doing some quick work and getting back to the break,” she says, admitting that though it’s not a fool-proof process, so far, it has worked for her. “I do change a little bit after each film I do. Call it damage or change, it stays with me,” she observes.

The future is bright

For a girl with absolutely no connections with the film world, Pannu’s rise to stardom is the stuff of dreams. What bigger testament can there be for an actor of her caliber than to be cast alongside none other than superstar Shah Rukh Khan. It is difficult for her to keep herself from gushing and the smile on her face gets wider once she starts talking about her fellow ‘Dilliwala’, with whom she will be seen sharing screen space in Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘Dunki’.

Pannu is mindful that she does not come across like a fangirl when she is on the set with him. “I can’t treat him like a co-star if I keep looking at him as ‘The Shah Rukh Khan’,” she reasons. Pannu considers ‘Chak De! India’ as her all-time favourite Hindi film, that’s easier said than done. “It is extremely hard for me to switch off that mode but I have no option. I know I will not get another chance if I keep fangirling and end up being not good enough in the frame with him,” she emphasises.

The other topic that has her grinning from ear-to-ear is that upcoming movie ‘Dobaara’ is the only Indian film which is going to be screened at the 26th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. “It is a very big deal and I don’t anything else from an Anurag Kashyap film!” she exults. Pannu and Kashyap formed a deep friendship when they worked in their first film together, Manmarziyaan. “I am most relaxed when I am doing his film as an actor because I know it will be loved and appreciated,” she says fondly. Recalling the time she accompanied Kashyap for Manmarziyaan’s premiere at the London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) , she says, “I have seen first-hand the kind of respect cinema-lovers have for him. They love him! Nobody even bothered about me at LIFF. It was only Anurag Kashyap that people wanted to meet, give gifts to and stand in queues to get pictures with. It is so beautiful to see a director getting that love because it is a director’s medium and yes, ‘Dobaara’ is going to be one of a kind,” she promises.

At the end of the day, it does not matter to Pannu if she is labelled as a classy or massy actor. “I want to be known as a performer who the audience trusts enough to spend their valuable time and money on!” she signs off with a flourish.

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