ACTOR Taapsee Pannu says she has often told filmmakers not to cast her in roles that audiences can easily predict, as she does not want to be trapped in a particular image. The Delhi-born actor, who charted an unconventional path in cinema with hard-hitting dramas such as Pink, Mulk, Thappad and Assi, said she would love to do a fun film like Khel Khel Mein, the 2024 comedy where she was part of an e n s e m b l e cast. "Everybody is going into their comfort zone and using t r i e d - a n d - tested methods.For instance, for glamorous roles, they ( i n d u s t r y ) have a set of five actresses they can cast, and for hardhitting, issuebased films, they have another set of five actresses to cast," the actor told PTI. "I'veactually started turning down films for this reason, telling makers that the audience will easily guess the ending. So, (I tell them) 'Don't cast me in this, it's bad for your film'. I've gone and 'de-sold' myself to a few films," she added. Pannu, who will be next seen in Netflix's Gandhari, said she has played strong women characters on screen and enjoyed them too, but these roles came to her at a time when conventional female lead roles were not an option. "It's a snowball effect. From the beginning of my career, I had no options in regular mainstream cliched roles, which are actually money-spinners for actresses. I didn't get those kinds of roles; hence I took the other type of roles, and to my luck, those films and roles later became mainstream." Pannu said she wants to experiment with characters that audiences would not associate with her, like her role of an influencer in Khel Khel Mein. She also credited films such as Soorma, Mission Mangal, and Dunki for allowing her to step away from "hardcore roles".

 

"They helped me ease out the pressure because psychologically, it's not healthy to keep doing these films back-to-back," she said. With her upcoming film Gandhari, Pannu is excited to revisit the action genre nearly a decade later. She had a small yet action-packed role as a spy in Neeraj Pandey's 2015 hit Baby, and the character's popularity led to Pannu headlining its spin-off, Naam Shabana, in 2017. "We have come quite far with men doing action because exponentially a much higher number of films have been made, where men have done action, so the budgets of those films are way ahead. Unfortunately, with women doing action, we haven't reached those numbers in terms of investment. Hence, there is a limitation that you may not be able to see action of that scale because some things require technology, and technology is extremely expensive," she added. Set against the atmospheric backdrop of the fictitious town of Joypurra, Gandhari follows Bani (Pannu), a mother who loses her eyesight while her daughter is kidnapped, prompting her to take matters into her own hands and hunt down those responsible."It's more like a mother's response, like how far can she go if her child is taken away from her? It's different from a crime against women. "A child can be anyone's child, but the point is that if her offspring is taken away and she has to take things into her own hands, how far can she go? According to my understanding, there is no limit; you have unleashed a superpower that no one can control," Pannu said. Gandhari is directed by Devashih Makhija. Also featuring Ishwak Singh, Chhaya Kadam, Swastika Mukherjee, Mita Vashisht and Jatin Sarna, the movie will release on Netflix on Sept 3.