Ahead of Thappad rolling, Taapsee Pannu makes a case for the importance of fronting stories told from the female gaze
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; August 21, 2019)

With Mission Mangal behind her, Taapsee Pannu is now readying for the shoot of the tentatively titled Thappad, which has her reuniting with director Anubhav Sinha after Mulk (2018). It is easy to gauge that the duo — known to unflinchingly take on hard-hitting subjects, in their individual capacities — will bring another relevant subject to the fore.

"I play a married woman and the movie will showcase several woes that she goes through. It's not a troubled marriage per se; the film instead offers a woman's point of view in a marriage," informs Pannu, happy that filmmakers are increasingly looking at subjects through a woman's gaze. "People are ready for new content. So, I hope that we are willing to give woman's perspective a chance. If you talk numbers, the ratio of men walking into a theatre versus women is lopsided, which affects collections. If women start claiming better stories, there's hope."

The actor is aware that the audience response is heavily skewed towards films with a male gaze — a prime example being the recent release, Kabir Singh. "Manmarziyaan (2018) was also a love story of a flawed lover but told from a woman's perspective. In this society, we are conditioned to buy into a man's woes more easily. Kabir Singh has pushed back whatever good work we had done since Pink (2016) till now. But the success doesn't surprise me. Manmarziyaan wasn't accepted because it was a woman's story. Does that deter me? Not at all."