Taapsee Pannu on playing Mithali Raj: I feel more like an athlete and less like an actor’

Taapsee Pannu has become Bollywood’s go-to actor-as-athlete; she has been part of three sports films back- to- back – Rashmi Rocket that released in October 2021, followed by Looop Lapeta in January 2022, and her upcoming film is the Mithali Raj biopic, Shabaash Mithu that hits theatres on 15 July. Not to forget she was seen playing a sharpshooter in Saand Ki Aankh and a hockey player in Soorma. Calling this as pure coincidence and unexpected, the actress now wants to take a break from sports films as she says, “Now I want to feel like an actor, I have started feeling more like an athlete.”

In an exclusive conversation with Firstpost, Pannu talks on the anxiety and pressure of having a theatrical release after over two years, working on films without heroes and getting the golden opportunity of sharing screen space with Shah Rukh Khan in Dunki. Besides Dunki, Pannu has Dobaaraa, Blurr and Woh Ladki Hai Kahaan lined up in the pipeline.

Excerpts from the interview:

You have done quite a few films in the backdrop of sports, are you chasing sports films or are the makers chasing you with these subjects?

There is mutual attraction I must say. I love sports so if there is any film in the backdrop of sports be it in any language, they always approach me once. But now I want to take a break from sports films because I am feeling really exhausted. Acting and sports together has been happening with me for the last many years, now I want to feel like an actor. I have started forgetting that I am also an actor; I have started feeling more like an athlete. Also it is taking a mental toll on me.

Most sports biopics follow the underdog -victory - struggle template. How is Shabaash Mithu  different, has it stayed out of that?

Underdog stories are very relatable, in fact, the biggest protagonist films are those where the underdog becomes the hero in the end, regardless of being a sports biopic or not. Where Shabaash Mithu is different is, there is no personal struggle of the protagonist. You won’t feel that parents were not supportive, there was no money, she was poor...that angle is not there. This is more of an underdog story of women in blue, not just Mithali. But the story is being told from Mithali’s lens. She has had a very long career, she has seen anonymity, women’s cricket was kept in anonymity. For 10 years there is no footage of her career. She has made records after records but there is no visual reference about how she would play earlier. After playing for 10 years, her matches started getting recorded. Her life looked like the perfect vehicle to give you a quick recap of women’s cricket in India. It is not a biopic of a personal struggle. It is more about the team rightly asking for acknowledgement, attention and love and that this cricket loving nation has been overlooking them.

You have played hockey but you had never played cricket before, so how easy or difficult did you find this sport?

Oh, it was very difficult, not just cricket but as a personality also. I had never lifted a cricket bat, and whenever I got the chance to play cricket in gulleys, boys made me do only fielding, they would never let me bat or bowl. So I chucked it and decided to play some other sport. I played a lot of other sports but not cricket. So when I got this offer, I got excited with the idea of playing a legend like Mithali on screen but it came with the heavy price of learning a sport I have never ever played. I picked up the bat and it took me months and months to master the shots that I had to show on screen. I haven’t mastered the game; I still don’t know how to play the game as a full match. But yes, I can hit the ball, I know the shots. I can hit a square cut, or cover drive but I don’t know how to bowl. It wasn’t possible to learn such a big sport within a few months.

Beyond the sport, how was the acting process because that aspect tends to get overshadowed …

You will see a minimum of cricket in this film. You will see Mithali’s journey from the age of 16 to 36 through me and if we start showing cricket then you will have to make a web series on her life. We have shown only the milestones in which she has broken many records. We were very precise with the cricket that we had to show and beyond that the majority of the film is drama portions where you will see what went beyond the field. For that I had to be like her and that was the acting challenge because I am totally opposite Mithali Raj. She is very laidback, very quiet, she doesn’t talk, express or emote much and everything is opposite to me. How do I show my audience my emotions in two-and-a-half hours whether I am happy, or sad, or I am angry, or jovial in that very narrow range? Mithali doesn’t believe in showing emotions, she herself says I don’t want people to know what I am feeling inside. You can’t read her. When my mother watched the film she said you don’t have many dialogues in the film and I told her it is not my biopic, it is Mithali Raj’s biopic (laughs). With Rashmi Rocket which is a fictional character I can make my character look like in whatever way I want to but here I can’t because she is a real character and she is very much around. And it is not like we are talking about Dhoni, Virat or Sachin because people know how they talk, walk, how they look or emote. We had to have a very fine line between not getting out of Mithali character but making sure you understand what I am feeling.

Cricketers like M S Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar…are hero worshiped. Do you think Mithali Raj will be able to pull the audience into the theatres?

That is the whole idea behind making this film on her specially because she has been the skipper, the torch-bearer of this big change, the one who has led India to World Cup finals and has had the longest career in ODI across genders in the world, so I don’t know of any person who can introduce women’s cricket in India better than Mithali Raj.

How was your interaction with Mithali? How much time did you spend with her to know her well?

I know of her since the time she gave that statement -- ‘Why do you keep asking this question to female cricketers and not men?' when she was asked, ‘Who is your favourite male cricketer?’ That was the first time I noticed her and that is when I came to know that there is a women's cricket team in our country. So, I am myself guilty of the fact that I didn’t know. Hence, somewhere I would have probably manifested it in my head that I would get the chance to correct this mistake which I am trying to make the most of. Mithali and I didn’t have enough time to interact or spend time with each other because she was still active at that time, and secondly it was COVID period. She was either in a bubble, or playing a tournament, or on a World cup camp. We had limitations in terms of timeline to prep up and to shoot. I had to go ahead (for researching) with four other cricketers who played with her over the years and one of them is a very dear friend of hers who has known her for nearly 10 years. They kind of became my window to Mithali and sometimes it is better to know someone through a third person perspective.

When you do a film like Shabaash Mithu, you have to change your body language as you need to fit the character. Does that impact your other characters in other films?

By now I am so used to prepping for one film and doing the other. I don’t have the liberty of working on only one film at a time so I have gotten used to switching in and out but as I said it is taking a physical and mental toll on me. So now I am stopping here, I am not doing any more films where it requires months and months of heavy prep while I am shooting something else.

How do you disconnect from your character after giving so much time prepping and then shooting the film?

I have figured the way of disconnecting from the character totally. I go off to another country where I have no means to get back and quickly do something. I totally disconnect myself for quite a few days and then come back after a week or 10 days to get into something else.

Shabaash Mithu is going to be your theatrical release after a gap of two years, your last theatrical release was Thappad in 2020. Is there any kind of pressure and anxiety about how the film will be received at the box office?

That is what is making me nervous and feel the pressure but rightfully so because the day it stops me feeling pressured or feeling nervous it is time to change my job. Then that would be being indifferent na? And if nothing affects me and my career keeps going the way it is going, what is the point?

But there was a lot of buzz around your films that were released on OTT platforms in the last two years. Haseen Dilruba, Rashmi Rocket …got quite a bit of attention. How do you look at the digital space?

I want people to spend time and money on my films, they should believe that it is going to be worth it. Now whether you release on OTT or in the theatre, whatever validation I get, I want validation from my audience because they are the ones who are paying for my content that is being put on OTT or releasing in theatres. I was very skeptical about OTT until Haseen Dilruba released. I didn’t think for a second that it was not a theatrical release because of the kind of buzz that it created. I will not say that I am totally averse or against or not comfortable with OTT but I like the idea of community viewing because I like watching films in a theatre with 100 - 200 people together. That gives me a good feeling. I would want my audience to go to the theatre to watch my films.

On focusing on films without any heroes, the last big star opposite you were Amitabh Bachchan.

I am going to have another big star Shah Rukh Khan (in her upcoming Dunki). It is not that I planned my career like that, I don’t have an option. I don’t get those films. Only those films come to me which nobody wants to do or something that is too risky to do, or it is too out-of-the-box, or too prep heavy...I get only such films.

What do you think people will take away from Shabaash Mithu? 

I am eagerly looking forward to the release of the film, to share this story of courage and resilience with everyone, and I hope it is showered with as much love and appreciation. In most of my films I bridge the gap between two genders because eventually talent in the sport matters more than what your gender is. This one also will end on a note where it will feel like you can take up cricket even if you are female.

What is the entertainment quotient for those who are not cricket fans?

There is humour, I would say dark humour in the sense that you will feel it is a sad situation but it will make you laugh at how ironic things are in cricket just because there is a different gender that we are talking about. Also, I am not a cricket buff but how much cricket we have shown in the film is engrossing and engaging enough for you to get entertained. You don’t need to know all those technicalities. But there is no romantic undercurrent because she didn’t have the time, she had so many other issues to tackle.

You have acquired a badminton franchise. Tell us about that.

I saw an opportunity there and I took it up. I have played badminton as a kid and I have followed the sport for over a decade now. I have played the sport at the district level. I have gone and seen live matches. I know all the Indian players personally.

You are doing Dunki with Shah Rukh Khan. Are you excited to work with your idol finally?

I am really very excited but when I am on that set I have to switch off because if I keep feeling like that fangirl while I am at work with him I will not do my job properly and later on when I look back at the only opportunity I got and I messed it up. If I keep fangirl-ing I can’t treat him like a co-star. At least when I am in front of the camera I have to switch off that mode. I try to avoid looking at him like ‘The Shah Rukh Khan’ which is very tough for someone whose introduction to Hindi movies happened through someone like him. My forever favourite Hindi film is Chak De. It is very hard for me to switch off that side but I have no other option because I will not get another chance.

Would you like to be known as a mass or a class actress?

I want to be known as an actor who people trust -- vishwas karke people spend money for the ticket and their two-and-half-hour to watch my film. Now whatever you want to call it mass or class, people should believe in me, have faith in me, that if it is Taapsee’s film it is worth their time and money.

Seema Sinha is a Mumbai-based mainstream entertainment journalist who has been covering Bollywood and television industry for over two decades. Her forte is candid tell-all interviews, news reporting and newsbreaks, investigative journalism and more. She believes in dismissing what is gossipy, casual, frivolous and fluff.

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