‘Nepotism tweet wasn’t about Varun at all’

Actor Taapsee Pannu, a quintessential outsider who has made it big in Bollywood, celebrates turning 30 today. Her ‘calling a spade a spade’ personality has translated into some strong characters on screen.

Returning to the comedy genre with Judwaa 2, directed by David Dhawan and set for a September release, Taapsee looks back at her nepotism comment, tweeted last December right after the acclaimed film Pink and just when she had signed up for this comedy. It went: “Nepotism. Finally LEARNT the MEANING of this word. Now will learn to deal with it (sic).” Was it about her co-star Varun Dhawan, son of David Dhawan, or about Ahan Shetty, son of Suniel Shetty, who was rumoured to be making his debut opposite Taapsee? “None! It wasn’t related to Varun or Ahan,” Taapsee tells us. “[Varun’s] father launched me in the Hindi film industry (with Chashme Baddoor, 2013) and they’re working with me in Judwaa 2, so there’s no question that I’ll talk about nepotism... to show them in a bad light. As for Ahan, I don’t think the film is happening.”

The nepotism row erupted in Bollywood in March after actor Kangana Ranaut called filmmaker Karan Johar the “flag-bearer of nepotism”. Clarifying her own stance, Taapsee says, “It was more like I had realised that [nepotism] exists very strongly, and it’s one of the rules of the industry.” On Kangana’s comments, Taapsee adds, “Someone eventually spoke about [nepotism] and everyone joined the debate.”

It was to say that I’m not going to revolt against [nepotism], but will work around it, and it has become a rule of the game for me, too TAAPSEE PANNU, ACTOR