DANCING AROUND TREES IS NOT EASY, SAYS TAAPSEE

Many people believe that Bollywood’s commercial films which involve the trademark songs and dancing around trees, don’t take much effort, as compared to intense dramas. However, actor Taapsee Pannu (right) believes otherwise.

“Having done both, I can say none of them is easy. In commercial films, you do get the privilege to not get into that intense zone. But looking like a million bucks on screen is not effortless. To carry yourself as if you are the diva is not an easy job,” says Taapsee. “Dancing on the beach in heels or around trees, no matter how much fun people make of it, is not a simple thing to do,” she adds.

Taapsee says that she decided to take up the sequel to Judwaa, which is a typical Bollywood masala entertainer, as she does not want people to box her in a particular category.

“I didn’t want people to put a genre tag on me. I want people to be more curious about what I am going to do next. It is a constant change of gear. I don’t want my audience to rest and relax thinking ‘she can only do a certain kind of cinema.’ I want to keep them on the edge,” says Taapsee.

The actor says that though she has done commercial films before, people now have different expectations from her, after powerful films such as Pink (2016) and Naam Shabana. “My answer to them is —if I keep doing hard-hitting stuff, my impact will die down after some time,” she says. “But I am not going to disappoint those people who want to see me doing those heavy duty roles. I will return to that because that has got me my audience.”

Taapsee says that her last few performances may have been praised a lot, but she still has a long way to go.

“I have still not arrived in a way that I can sit and wait and let things happen on the auto pilot mode. It won’t happen still. Now I have different battles to fight. I am just getting ready for the next stage,” she says, adding that she wants to experiment with different genres. “I want people to believe that I can pull off more than one or two types of genres or characters,” she says.