'I don't want to race with competitors'

'I just want to up my own timing. That's the only reason I'm running.' 'I'm not thinking of who is doing what Films and if I am better or worse.''I just want to better what I have done before.'

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After a successful stint down South, Taapsee Pannu flagged off her Bollywood career with the contemporary remake of Sai Paranjpye's Chashme Buddoor caught everyone's eye in Baby and flirted with a PINK. But today, the feisty actress, who refuses to be put in a box or tied down by conventional beliefs of what a woman should and should not do, has made a niche for herself in a industry where equations change every Friday. So her films like Mulk, Badla, Saand Ki Aankh, Manmarziyan, Thappad and Haseen Dillruba are similar in that they are so different. They don't follow any formulae, they don't conform to the conventional image of the holierthan-thou heroine and most importantly, they give her a chance to discover and rediscover herself.

Continuing on this path, Taapsee is out to challenge an archaic sex test that has ruined the careers of many promising athletes, put her weight behind the women's cricket team and its endevour for an equal playing field, chosen to remake a cult classic and turned producer with a film in which she plays a woman who is slowly losing her sight.

Every time I do a film like Rashmi Rocket, Shabaash Mithu or Loop Lapeta, there's always a point during the making of the film when I have sat and asked myself why the hell do I do this to myself. Why do I put myself in situations which leave me just so exhausted? But then, I look at my reflection and motivate myself by saying, 'If not you, then who?'

Your first challenge while playing an athlete in the sports drama,Rashmi Rocket, must have been fitness, right?