Onkar Kulkarni (BOMBAY TIMES; October 12, 2019)

Taapsee Pannu is known for taking on roles that push her limits. And roles that definitely break stereotypes of female characters on screen — whether it is playing the freespirited, feisty Rumi in Manmarziyaan or the edgy and manipulative businesswoman in Badla, she is fearless on screen. Off-screen, too. No wonder, she convincingly steps into the role of a woman in her sixties and gives it her all. Whether it is learning the local dialect or living the rural life for real, Taapsee goes all out to do justice to every courageous role she picks. In an interview with BT, the actress talks about the time she spent with sharpshooter Prakashi Tomar (who she is portraying on screen in Saand Ki Aankh), her prep for the role and why she’s glad she took a shot at this, in spite of all odds. Read on...

For Saand Ki Aankh, not only did you have to train to play a sharpshooter, but you also took on the daunting task of stepping into the shoes of Prakashi Tomar, who is much older than you. Was the prep for this movie the toughest so far?
This film is critical for Bhumi (Pednekar) and me, and is one of the most challenging films of our careers. We knew this was going to be an aar ya paar kind of scenario. Either people will laugh at us, or remember us for years. Having said that, hum fail bhi huye toh kya hua, at least, mehnat toh ki.

How did you transform yourself into Prakashi Tomar?
When I came on board, I thought I should focus on learning to shoot first, since my character is of that of a sharpshooter. Also, since childhood, I was extremely bad at games that had anything to do with aiming at a target, like darts. Forget hitting the bull's eye, my dart wouldn’t even come anywhere close to the board (laughs!). While I took the time to learn, Bhumi was good at it. As the training progressed, I realised that shooting was probably the easiest of things to learn to get into Prakashi’s shoes. There is a lot more to her personality than the sport she plays. The difficult part was to blend into the village lifestyle. These women (Prakashi and Chandro) had never stepped out of their village before they started shooting. They were always in a ghungat, dressed in ghagra and oodhni, and doing household chores. It took Bhumi and me some time to learn to manage the ghagra. Apart from the costumes, we had to learn to do house chores like milking of the cows, making makkhan and cutting the hay. Since my character owns a family business of making bricks, we also had to learn to pile up a set of bricks and then balance it on our heads.

There was also another challenge — to get their dialect correct, right?
We had to bridge the gap between khadi boli and Hindi. Khadi boli is the local dialect spoken by people from western UP. It is not Haryanvi, but a crossover between Hindi and Haryanvi. Though I trained for it in Mumbai, my language improved only when I went to Johri (Uttar Pradesh) when I interacted with the locals. This is exactly how I used to prep myself for my south projects, too. What also helped me was that I stayed with Chandro dadi in her house in UP.

Did you enjoy living the rural life?
I stayed at Chandro dadi’s home for over a month during the shooting. Both the dadis live next to each other. Chandro dadi was very sweet, and she moved out of her own room to accommodate me. The medals and trophies she had won adorned her room, and I used to wake up and see those. Throughout my stay, she ensured that I was being taken care of very well. A bucket of hot water would be ready for my bath every morning, as well as when I returned home in the evening. Considering I love ghee, they would get me a lot of homemade fresh makkhan. Not only the family, but people from the neighbourhood, too, would get food for me. My breakfast used to come from one house, lunch from the other and dinner from a third home. For a few weeks, my mom also came and stayed with me. She used to come on the sets for only a few minutes and then leave early to spend maximum time with the dadis. In fact, she is still in touch with them.

There has been heavy use of prosthetics in the movie, take us through the process of how they turned you into a 60-year-old?
That was a very time-consuming process. It took us three hours to look like our characters. The process of prosthetics tested my patience. I can't sit in one place for a long time as I am extremely restless. So here I was, on the sets, and sitting for three hours every day for a span of 50 days to get ready for the shoot. They used to pull my facial skin and put latex on. It would take some time to dry. It’s like some surgery happening on your face every day. Not only this, we were given fake breasts to wear as we played older women. We used to keep all this on for 10-12 hours a day. It took time to get used to it. Removing prosthetics at the end of the shoot would take one whole hour.

The film was apparently first offered to Kangana Ranaut. She turned it down and then, you came on board. Is that correct?
The makers must have gone to Kangana for this role; actually, they went to half the industry as they received bizarre reasons (from actresses who turned down the project). As far as I am concerned, the makers never approached me. When I got to know that such a film was being planned, I personally reached out to them. I have no shame in admitting that. I told them that I wanted to do it. Meanwhile, it took us two years to find the parallel female lead.

With Bhumi and you playing the 60-year-olds, it has sparked a conversation online about how a slightly older actor could have been cast for the part.
Yes, Taapsee and Bhumi are not 60 years old, agreed, but then what is an actor’s job? If I have to portray myself on-screen in every film then I should stop calling myself an actor. I should just be a Taapsee Pannu in every film. That way, the role of every 30-year-old Delhi girl or a sardarni, should be played by me. If I am an actor, then it is my job to transform myself in every film. Therefore, I feel it is a completely stupid debate that is going on. I feel sad when it comes from other actors. Frankly speaking, it is a role that you can kill for. I am happy I did it.