'I Don't Mind Living-in With a Guy' Taapsee Pannu

While we are still seeing the world with PINK-tinted glasses, Taapsee Pannu speaks her heart out about women, marriage, expectations and reality.

- Shubarna Mukerji Shu

Naam shabana, tadka, ghazi… these are some of the films that we will be seeing Taapsee in post the magnificent PINK, that released in September. We always knew there was more to her than met the eye, but we were still bamboozled… How does she do it? For a girl with no influence, no training… And no godfathers! For girl who comes from a very patriarchal family to be living by herself in an actor-eatactor world, making choices without influence… It cannot have been easy. “I have been working since 17; earlier it was just for pocket money and later, because I was enjoying what I was doing. I am in no hurry. I don’t have a fixed destination… This is not my dream, perhaps that’s the reason why I have been successful,” she quipped as the sun filtered in through the window behind her. I decided to throw some more questions to scratch the surface…

The frenzy that followed BABY, died much before PINK happened. People had almost stopped expecting much. Did that worry you?

I was pretty confident, I knew what I was doing, where I was heading. I knew what was in store. I knew the directors and producers I was going to be working with. I was confident that though it would be slow, my journey would be steady! There are many who felt that I didn’t make enough of the attention I got after BABY. But then just because BABY had worked I couldn’t go ahead and sign ten films just like that to show that I was getting work, that I was in demand! I would have screwed up everything that I had done till BABY. Trust me, there is no dearth of offers; you get new proposals once a week on an average. What is tough is the decision making. If I ever felt the pressure it was in deciding what to do and what not to…