While many actors like Saif Ali Khan and Rajkummar Rao are foraying into the digital space with web series, you won’t see Taapsee Pannu doing one, anytime soon. Though the actress, who is active on social media, feels that the digital platform is wonderful, she doesn’t want to jump on the bandwagon, yet. “I see the web as a platform to experiment with different kind of roles that you don’t get in films. But I’m getting to explore all kinds of genres and play varied characters in movies. So, there is no reason for me to do web,” she explains.
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Right now, Taapsee is in a happy space in cinema. While Pink and Naam Shabana won her critical acclaim, Judwaa 2 was her first Rs 100 crore-film. She has the romcom Dil Juunglee coming up, followed by Mulk and the hockey biopic Soorma. Soon, she will start shooting for Manmarziyan, which is being helmed by Anurag Kashyap. “It will be exciting to work with Anurag, Abhishek Bachchan and Vicky Kaushal. It’s an intense romantic drama, something that I haven’t attempted so far. I’ve done comedies, romcoms and serious films, but this is a typical Anurag kind of love story drama,” gushes the actress, who will start shooting for it this month.
Not just in Bollywood, Taapsee is also doing movies in the south. “I will always make an effort to do one south film. My last Telugu release Anando Brahma did very well at the box office and now I’m shooting for another one. I’m striving to do a Tamil movie, but I’m not getting the time,” she rues. Ask her if she is fluent in any of the south languages and she shares that she knows Telugu, but despite doing four films, she cannot converse well in Tamil.”
BOLLYWOOD VS SOUTH
Does she find any difference between Bollywood and South cinema? “Content-wise both are as good or as bad. It’s not like one is better than the other. You can find content-driven films in both the industries. The only difference I find is in the scale of the set. The other day when I was shooting for a Telugu film, I was joking that the same set looks so much more fuller in Bollywood. That’s because the number of people are more, while in the South they are relatively less. You feel relaxed and less stressed. Here, they have a bigger entourage compared to the south.”
But when it comes to female-centric films, the Pink actress reveals that there are more options in Bollywood. “On an average, I have heard or I’m offered one female-centric film per week in Hindi. The options are relatively less in the south. The bigger movies are hero driven, but I still managed to find something last year in Telugu. Even the one I am doing right now is not female driven but my role is equal to that of the hero,” she says proudly.
