Taapsee Pannu has often spoken about how an actor can get boxed into a certain image once audiences and filmmakers associate them with a particular kind of role. After years of playing strong, intense characters, she feels that perception can sometimes be a limitation. In a recent chat with Hindustan Times, the actor spoke about Gandhari , the creative bankruptcy in Bollywood and why the industry only offers her certain kinds of roles.
The film premiered on Netflix on September 3. Because there are only those four or five actors, actresses who are doing that, “All the rom-coms, glam stuff looks the same. Because there are only those four or five actors who are doing that,” she says, all our thrillers look and feel the same. “So that’s not the fault of that poor actor, also.
For Taapsee, the conversation around casting is not limited to the kind of stories actors are offered. She feels that an actor’s appearance can also shape how filmmakers picture them in a role. A big part of her transformation stemmed from how Bani was visually created. Taapsee credits her hair, makeup and costume teams for helping her look completely different from her usual self. “Even on my worst stress days, I will not look like that. That, she feels, is how an actor should approach a character. You do not necessarily have to look like the person you are playing in real life. Sometimes it is the story and world of the film that determine what the character should look like. She feels that filmmakers often return to the same actors for similar stories, leaving little room for a fresh combination of actor and character. If the industry wants its films to feel different, she believes the casting needs to change, too. “If you really want your film to look different, something new, something different, then you need to cast people who can bring that difference on screen. For Taapsee, putting a familiar actor in a different outfit or changing their styling does not necessarily make the character feel new. The audience already has a certain image of an actor, and that stays with them even when the appearance changes. “If I’ve seen someone in a glamorous role, now you make that person wear a sari or a bikini or whatever, I have seen the glamour of that actor. It’s only different, right?” she adds. Ishwak Singh plays Gokul, a father searching for his missing daughter, while Jatin Sarna steps in as Kabir, the police officer handling the investigation. Swastika Mukherjee, Mita Vashisht and Chhaya Kadam round out the cast.
“When it comes to certain visuals of a character, it’s a lot to do with vanity more than how that actor is born and looks,” she says. “I would like to take the credit, not just myself, but with my look-creating people — the hair, makeup, costume — to be able to make me look like Bani in this film, because I’m nowhere close to her in real life, how I look,” she adds. “It’s the character and the world that demanded me to look like that,” she says.
Taapsee also believes that Bollywood ‘s casting choices play a role in why so many films today end up feeling similar.
