Taapsee Pannu — who feels charity is a personal choice — kept her donation a secret and says she isn’t bothered by trolls
Sangeeta Yadav (HINDUSTAN TIMES; April 11, 2020)

At a time when the entire film industry has come forward to donate for the Coronavirus relief efforts across country, actor Taapsee Pannu, too, has done her bit. However, unlike some, she has decided to not publicise it.

“I’ve done it for my personal satisfaction and not for attention. Charity is a personal choice and shouldn’t be a peer pressure. Those who talk about how much they have donated to encourage others is also a personal choice,” the Thappad actor explains.

But she also reveals that her silence has raised many questions. “I get trolled, and people write nasty things and say, ‘She didn’t do anything’. Just because I didn’t announce or get a big article out about it, or didn’t copy paste my bank receipt, that doesn’t mean I’m not doing it. So, all this name-calling isn’t going to affect me,” she shares.

The 32-year-old, who is also a part of the new music-video collaboration, Muskurayega India, which was self-shot from home by celebrities such as Akshay Kumar, Bhumi Pednekar, Kriti Sanon and many others, shares that doing it was both fun and difficult. “The most challenging part was filming myself. I’m not good at it at all. It feels like I’m giving an audition and that’s scary for me,” she adds.

And that’s one of the reasons Pannu doesn’t post self-shot videos or go live on social media. “It’s as if I’ve to perform every time. I’m not that dramatic in real life, and like to spend this time living a normal life. I don’t want to overexpose myself through social media,” says the actor, who is making the most of the quarantine time by setting up her new house with sister Shagun, in Mumbai.

On her projects that are on hold, she says, “I’m 10 days short of finishing Haseen Dillruba, and I had to start shooting for Rashmi Rocket by March-end in Bhuj. It is now pushed to June-July. We’ll also have to consider the weather conditions as it will be too hot at that time. So, a lot of work now depends on external factors.”