Having started 2020 thinking she would not have breathing space between films, Taapsee Pannu, like the rest of the world, sat twiddling her thumbs for the better part of the year while her schedule was hit for a six by the coronavirus pandemic. But ever since she kicked off work with a South film, the actress has been on a roll. She finished filming in a palace in Jaipur before hopping on to Mumbai to complete her portion in Aanand L Rai’s romantic-thriller Haseen Dillruba. But it wasn’t as seamless as it looked in her social media posts. “Earlier I used to finish films in single schedules within two-three months. But now, after this huge break, I seem to have lost my rhythm. I was actually nervous about getting the nuances of the character right again so it matches the 75 per cent that I had already shot for,” she admits, pointing out that the shoot took longer because of all the safety precautions and testing.

After playing Rani Kashyap, who the actress describes as a self-obsessed borderline narcissist in a script that talks about how “obsessive love can be criminal too”, Taapsee has changed tracks for her sports drama, Rashmi Rocket, and is currently on the outskirts of Pune where a bubble has been created to allow minimal outside contact. “We plan to shoot the rest of the film in similarly controlled environments at different places,” she reveals, adding that this three-week schedule will see her working through Diwali. The film traces the journey of an athlete from anonymity to fame and how she gets caught up in politics and corruption in the system along the way. The Akarsh Khurana-directorial was to kick off on March 26 before moving to Kutch in April, heading to Delhi in May, and then, Dehradun and Mussourie in June, before the pandemic played spoilsport.

Taapsee rolls with Looop Lapeta, the Indian adaptation of the 1998 German cult film, Run Lola Run, in the last week of November, and thereafter will be alternating between these two films, hopping from one set to the other. Point out that she will be running a lot in the next two months since her sports-drama revolves around the life of a sprinter while Looop Lapeta has her on the go from the first frame to the last, and Taapsee is nonchalant. “I had been training for two-and-a-half months already and was very close to getting to the desired shape. I discontinued my training during the lockdown but am back at it since the past two months. We have a month to go before we start filming the races; as of now, we are focusing on the drama and training portions,” the actress relays. On set, she has a reliable team of five—a nutrionist, physiotherapist, track trainer, athletics coach, and a gym trainerto ensure she builds muscle naturally without steroids, and doesn’t sustain injuries.

However, she admits that constant training is draining, not just physically but mentally too. “I have very limited food intake and that too of a specific kind, which I am not used to. I work hard to not give in to the sadness of the diet that I’m on. It’s doable and I don’t have a sweet tooth but I love to eat. Fried snacks and spicy food is my Achilles’ heel. I am waiting for the races to end and hope to ring in the New Year having chole bhature,” Taapsee says fervently, insisting the only unwinding she needs is a good eight-hour sleep.

And then there are the vacations that she takes off on after wrapping up every film, like the one to Maldives and Dubai. “I have kept dates to go somewhere after wrapping these two too,” she shares. Talking of vacations, her “Biggini Shoot” video has gone viral. Whose idea was it? “Evania (Pannu, cousin) is a typical millennial who is clued in to all the latest fads on the social media. Since we were in the Maldives, and the background and costumes were perfect, we felt a take on Yashraj Mukhate’s rap was called for. All three of us were brought up together and have the same quirky ideas,” she laughs, adding that both her sisters Shagun and Evania were exhausted by the end of it, not knowing it would involve multiple shots and retakes, even if it was only a spoof video. “I had never been on Dubsmash or Tik Tok and wasn’t sure if I would be able to pull it off. But when my non-industry friends approved, I felt confident about posting it online,” she concludes.