Renuka Vyavahare (BOMBAY TIMES; August 12, 2019)

Taapsee Pannu’s film choices have been unconventional and courageous, just like outspoken demeanour in real life. Not the one to dodge the controversial questions, exuding her trademark bindaas attitude, the actress talks about her upcoming film Mission Mangal, why Akshay Kumar has a bigger presence in the movie poster vis-à-vis the actresses, being called a ‘sasti copy of Kangana’ by her sister, Rangoli Chandel, and why she would never want to go back to her 20s. Read on…

You just celebrated your 32nd birthday. While the 20s is more about self-doubt, 30s brings a certain sense of confidence, doesn’t it?
When you cross your 30s, people tend to say you are ageing, but I say that I am only getting better. 20s is about wanting validation. ‘Sabko main acchi lagni chahiye’ mentality. The need for validation ends when you are in your 30s, so it’s much better. You go from ‘I want to look or be like someone’ to ‘I want to make my own way’. Also, by the time you enter your 30s, you have already gone through enough shit in your life, so you accept that this is how it is - take it or leave it. I started acting around eight years ago and if you see my pictures when I was a decade younger, you’ll say it’s good that you don’t look like that anymore (laughs!). I don’t want to be the clumsy, weird 22-year-old again. I don’t want to go back to that age. I am happy to be 32. Ageing has worked in my favour and how!

There was a time when some actresses would rather not talk about their age and prefer not revealing the real number. That seems to have changed today...
Some of them still do that and I have come across people like that. They fear that people might say buddhi ho gayi hai. As long as you can do your job convincingly, age doesn’t matter. As an actor, I don’t care if I am 32 or 42, as long as I am able to pull off a 25-year-old character or vice versa. That’s where being an actress comes into play, as you are portraying something you are not. Also, the average age of getting married or having kids has gone up, so our society has also become more accepting of women over 30s. It’s okay if you are not being married at 30 or not having a child by 33. The society has changed a bit in that sense, so there has been a change in our mindset as well.

Akshay Kumar has become the torchbearer of cinema based on social issues, given the kind of subjects that he has been consistently choosing. For this same reason, various memes on him are often doing the rounds lately. Have you ever chatted with him about it?
I want to be in his position. I want these memes to be made on me. Who wouldn’t? I even show him these memes sometimes, and he jokes, ‘Woh dusrawala zyada funny hai’. He takes it in his stride. In fact, that man doesn’t take anything the wrong way. It’s even more surprising as he has this khiladi action star image. I have never seen him angry or upset. As far as his patriotic films are concerned, somewhere, we all are patriotic, just that our way of showing it is different.

When the poster of Mission Mangal was released, people spoke about how Akshay’s face was more prominent on the poster than all the actresses put together. Of course, Balki maintained that it’s not a women-centric film. What’s your take on it?
I followed this debate and I think it’s nice that people noticed this. I want to know what you as an audience, are doing about it. Will you walk in to watch our films and pay as much for us as you would for an Akshay Kumar film, or will you wait for our films to release on web streaming channels and then watch it? Is the audience giving actresses the opening numbers that are equal to an Akshay Kumar film? I am not ashamed to admit that even if you add up the opening figures of our movies (five actresses of Mission Mangal put together), our collective figure won’t match up to Akshay sir’s. Agar hum paanch picture mein nahi bhi hotey, toh film ko thoda farak padta shayad, but koi significant farak nahi padta. It would have still been an Akshay Kumar-film, and people would still be excited to watch it. That’s the reality. You (the audience) can bring upon the change. You pay for our films, too, and make that change happen. Make us feel as valued and at par with a hero. When that happens, then, you can question the poster. For now, it’s a perfect poster. Akshay sir on one side and all of us on the other, because hum milaakey bhi unki star value nahi achieve kar sakte. That is the brutal reality.

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) tweeted about the film congratulating Akshay. Many thought that India’s premier space research organisation shouldn’t have promoted a film on Twitter, as they have bigger things to do.
Twitter is like a messy, over-judgmental school, where no one is a student and everyone’s a teacher. ISRO tweeted about it and why not? We have dedicated the film to all the scientists at ISRO. They are entitled to say what they want to and it’s natural for them to acknowledge it. People just wait to find faults these days. Even if I write, ‘Aaj mausam kitna accha hai’, there will be those who will write, ‘We are stranded here, farmers are dying there.’ Kuch na kuch kharabi dhund lenge. There’s no point. Random people’s opinions don’t matter to me anymore.

Pink, Mulk, Manmarziyaan, Badla, Game Over and now Mission Mangal. Is this the best phase of your career?
It is, and I hope that it only gets better. I have no complaints about the roles or the money I am getting. The only complaint I have is the lack of pay parity. A hero’s salary is equal to an entire budget of a female-driven film. Usme bhi mujhe bola jata hai, aap thoda kam charge kar lona. Cost-cutting karenge kyunki yeh female-centric film hai, mainstream nahin. These things hurt a bit. If you are cast in a film where a woman has an equal part as the man, if not more, you don’t get a male A-lister who will be okay to share screen space with you. If women are cast as the protagonists in a film, the male actors who play their partners are never A-listers. On the contrary, girls are ready to play smaller parts opposite top male actors. These things bother me. Other than that, I am in a brilliant phase where I can pick and choose. I am so greedy that I don’t want to let go of any good script that comes my way.

As an outsider, who has made a mark for herself on her own, were you hurt to be called ‘Kangana Ranaut’s sasti copy’ by her sister Rangoli Chandel?
I am not hurt. That’s too strong a word to be used for someone who doesn’t feature in my scheme of things. I don’t get hurt by random people; I get hurt by people who matter to me. I don’t waste my time and effort to indulge in a verbal battle with someone who doesn’t matter to me. I don’t seek validation from them. I think Kangana and I are very different, as people and actors. What’s strange is that I didn’t know there was a patent on curly hair and honest opinions. My fault! I can’t apologise for curly hair as my parents gifted that to me and I will not apologise for voicing honest opinions, but if that makes me Kangana’s copy in any way, I still take it as a compliment because she is a good actress. To be looked upon as any version of her or a copy, is fine by me. When I was in school, 8th or 9th standard, people would say, ‘Tu Preity Zinta jaise lagti hai.’ I took it as a compliment as Preity is a pretty girl. As far as the ‘sasti copy’ (cheap copy) remark, is concerned, Kangana says she is the highest-paid actress and I don’t get paid that much, so technically it’s fine. Why should I be offended? Also, I don’t have that kind of vocabulary to get back at her (Rangoli).

Rumi Bagga in Manmarziyaan vs Kabir Singh… both are headstrong, passionate lovers, who make the first move and proclaim their love unabashedly. Both faced their share of criticism. Kabir for his alleged toxic masculinity and entitled behaviour, while Rumi for not being apologetic about her choices. It is still hard for the audience to accept deeply flawed characters, more in case of women than men. Would you agree?
That’s a clear depiction of where our society stands. We are on the cusp of change, but we haven’t changed. The visuals of a woman making the first move, or proclaiming what she wants in a relationship, are still not perceived as a regular phenomenon. A man doing that is considered ‘manly’. A woman doing the same is not considered as a ‘womanly’ thing to do. For years, we have been told how women should behave and when you don’t see that on screen, you find it difficult to accept. Any change faces a certain resistance. It takes time to seep in as we have been trained to look at a Kabir Singh and appreciate his heroism. Rumi is, however, not heroic as that’s not how a woman is supposed to be. A man can do anything to get what he wants, as that’s supposedly manly. A female protagonist has to be shown as someone who is sacrificing. She needs to put everyone’s needs before her own. What she wants should not feature in her scheme of things, but a man should be so passionate ke woh koi haddein nahi chodega. The definitions of what’s manly and womanly have been rigid for so many years that we can’t expect it to change overnight. It will take persistent efforts. I am aware that Manmarziyaan collected nothing in comparison to a Kabir Singh, but I won’t give up on this battle. I won’t stop playing characters like Rumi.