When one thinks of actor Taapsee Pannu’s movies, it is a given that she will pack a punch with the fierce, bold and firebrand image that she has come to be known for. With her next film Thappad, which highlights the subject of domestic violence, the actor hopes to break that tag and set a new benchmark for herself.
“Thappad is one of the most challenging projects of my career because I carry this image of a firebrand actor and people think that isse koi maarega toh yeh ghumaake maaregi. We were trying to strip off that firebrand image to make her resonate with the average Indian woman who still believes in keeping things to herself and not fighting back. And to make my audience believe in my character Amrita who is submissive and vulnerable, was tough,” Taapsee says.
Calling it a passion project for her and director Anubhav Sinha, Taapsee recalls how a casual discussion led to the making of this film. “I remember during the promotions of Mulk (2018), I was chatting with Anubhav sir and I told him that if there is a day I can really tell someone to make a film, it’ll be on the subject of domestic violence. It is very personal to me and I can’t explain why…”
Right after Sinha finished the shooting of Article 15 (2019), he gave Taapsee the script and she took it on.
Taapsee says they have consciously kept the movie devoid of a heavy dose of domestic violence. “We deliberately refrained from making it into an excessive domestic violence film because then people might try to disconnect with it, saying ‘Yeh hamare ghar pe nahi hota. Yeh hum upper middle class ya educated logo ke ghar pe nahi hota hai’. Hota sab ghar mein hai and so it was deliberately kept like that,” says Taapsee.
The actor, who has always played strong characters in her previous films such as Pink (2016), Naam Shabana (2017) and Badla (2019), shares that while shooting for the film, she felt “claustrophobic” many times, and so, she was “desperate to come out of the character”.
“When the shoot got over, I didn’t get back to normalcy for 30 days and I had to take a break from work to disconnect from it,” signs off Taapsee, who has her hands full with films such as Haseen Dilruba, Rashmi Rocket, Shabaash Mithu and Loop Lapeta.
