‘Dhak Dhak’, Taapsee Pannu’s big-screen production, starring Ratna Pathak Shah, Dia Mirza, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanjana Sanghi, releases in theatres today. Produced under her banner Outsider Films, the story follows four female bikers, total strangers, who hail from different backgrounds. As they embark on a road journey, it helps them discover life and themselves along the way.

A true believer of the big screen, Taapsee is glad that her labour of love releases in theatres on National Cinema Day, today. However, her experience as a new producer has been shockingly eye opening. Annoyed and disappointed with the system that still favours the stars, she fears it will only widen the gap between talented aspiring actors and massive movie stars, when there’s room for everyone.

“I truly believe in a good subject as an actor and a producer. Dhak Dhak is an interesting story, and we’ve left no stone unturned to ensure it makes for a great visual and emotional experience. Sadly, the entire system still revolves around the stars including the OTT, and everyone passes the buck. The film’s trailer was dropped barely four days before the release. I heard things like ‘yeh female oriented hai, sirf niche audience aayegi, itnay shows nahi milenge, baad mein OTT pe aani hi hai so why stress?’ XYZ ka trailer bhi late drop hua tha but my film is not Jawan. Smaller films need a certain push. People are free to accept or reject them, but they need a fair chance to be seen.”

Stressing on her prime concern, she says, “I have a first-time director Tarun Dudeja helming this, good actors who have given it their all. They learnt how to ride the bike for it. If there’s no buzz around the film, no promotions, one or two shows playing in theatres at strange times, the film is bound to go unnoticed. Everyone will be quick to label it as a ‘flop’. Once you get that label, will people even watch it on OTT later? Isn’t this infuriating?”

Everything boils down to the ‘star system’ eventually, something we believed ended with the advent of OTT, points out the actress. “This myth I had about people believing in ‘content is king’ was shattered while making this film. There’s so much hypocrisy. They will hear your one-line story and will be quick to ask, 'Picture mein actor kaun hai?' That decides their financial and emotional investment in the project. As an actor, I never asked who my co-star is, or how big the makers are when I signed a movie. I worked with so many first-time directors and costars who were newcomers but that is not how others look at it."

The actress concludes with a sigh, “Everyone involved is to be blamed for this culture. It includes the actors, studios, audience, everyone. It’s a cycle. Just because the studios recover their investment (by selling digital rights) for the smaller films, there’s minimal interest in packaging and releasing a film well. That’s detrimental to the growth of the industry because you are only enabling the big names. Baakiyon ko chance kaise milega? It will only widen the gap between actors and stars. We keep saying Bollywood doesn’t attempt something meaningful but when we try to do that, there’s rarely any support and this must change.”