Actress Taapsee Pannu recently clocked for 10 years in the Hindi film industry. When she started in 2013 with ‘Chashme Baddoor,’ she didn’t have a career trajectory charted out. She says, “I was told that it’s a short lived career and there are not many examples of people who lasted for a long time. So I always thought that, ‘Okay, I’m just gonna be here around for a couple of more years.’”
Taapsee, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam movies before venturing into Bollywood, says she wanted to stand out. She said, “During my stint in the South, I realised that I was dispensable. I began to feel that I needed to have something more besides just having a female presence in films. I wanted the audience to believe that I wouldn’t waste their money and time. My only goal was to become someone who is not easily replaceable.”
Now, she feels satisfied as an artiste. “Barring all the misses that I learnt from, I do have a credible career graph to be proud of. In fact, that’s the only thing that has encouraged me to move forward. I feel satisfied. I have nothing else to keep patting my back. And I am definitely in a place where I am satisfied.” Taapsee admits she wanted to create a unique identity with her work and her self-critical attitude helped her achieve that.
“A lot of people (actors) who come into this industry don’t have a recall value. But I have been lucky to get back-to-back good opportunities that helped me create a unique identity and leave a strong impression on the audience’s mind,” she said.
When asked about the lowest point in the past 10 years, she can’t point out one. “Being an actor, I’ve kept myself vulnerable to situations in life... to make sure I stay as real as possible. This obviously makes you experience a lot of lows as well. But I’ll just say that I’ve had as many lows as highs in the last 10 years. And I’m sure there’ll be many more to come. All I know is that I chose a non-monotonous life. And that’s what I got,” Taapsee ends.