‘You have to be in a certain league to get awards’
Taapsee Pannu might have received a lot of praise for her performance in Pink (2017), but she didn’t receive any awards. However, the young actor is far from disillusioned — she says that not receiving awards isn’t new for her, as similar incidents happened when she was working in the South Indian film industry as well.
“It’s not a new feeling to not get an award, so it’s alright. These award shows are beautifully televised and look fancy. In the South Indian industry too, for a lot of my films that did great business, awards were promised, but except for my debut film, I didn’t get any awards. It hurt me in the beginning, but I later realised that the criteria were not the same. I realised that you have to be in a certain league to get the award. It doesn’t work the other way round. I know it will sound like a case of sour grapes, because I didn’t get any awards, but this is what I feel,” the Naam Shabana actor says.
Taapsee says she still feels like an outsider in the industry despite working in movies that have featured A-listers such as Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar. She says, “There is nothing negative about feeling like an outsider. I will have to constantly prove myself with my films to be considered an equal. One wrong step on my part, and I know that I will be kicked out. There is a long way to go, and I still don’t feel like I am in the same position as an industry kid. I’ve been made to feel like I am in a queue. On the flipside, I know that I can get away with doing a decent job as opposed to industry kids, whom people expect a lot from. Both sides have their own advantages and disadvantages,” she says.
There is nothing negative about feeling like an outsider. I will have to constantly prove myself with my films to be considered an equal. TAAPSEE PANNU, ACTOR