It’s a make-or-break film,” says Taapsee Pannu, at the beginning of our chat. It’s surprising to hear it from an actor who is in the golden phase of her career. But to Pannu, Shabaash Mithu is that defining film, one that she refuses to go wrong with. She felt so attached to Mithali Raj’s life that she gave her nod to the biopic even before a script was developed.

The actor begins, “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime film on one of our best cricketers. You can’t make a Mithali Raj biopic again. It’s the first film on women’s cricket [in Hindi cinema], and we won’t get another chance to correct it. I was overjoyed to come on board, but there wasn’t a single day when I didn’t wonder, why did I do this to myself?”

Before Srijit Mukherji’s directorial venture went on floors in April 2021, Pannu trained with cricketer Nooshin Al Khadeer. Her training was as much to learn the sport, as to become Raj on the pitch. “Even when Mithali pads up, she puts on the left one first, as a pre-match ritual. She walks lazy, I am a brisk walker. You won’t see her fist-thumping or jumping in the air. At the most, she will flash a wide smile. So, I had to mould myself [accordingly].”

Pannu couldn’t meet the former captain during the film’s making as the cricketer was in and out of tournaments. “I didn’t even get a body double on the film. Getting the [batting] technique right was crucial. We decided to do as many single shots as possible. I would play non-stop for eight hours in the October heat.”

It’s evident that the actor wanted to give her all to the project. She says the determination came from the drive to deliver a worthy biopic, thus paving the way for women-oriented sport dramas. “This is a cricket-obsessed nation, eager to raise eyebrows when a woman is playing. There are few male actors who haven’t played cricket, whereas there is hardly a female actor who has played the sport. I don’t want anyone to say, ladki ne cricket dhang se nahin khela. That kept me going. This film cannot go wrong. As a woman, you have to [do more] to be at par with the standards set by men, and our chances are limited.”