Taapsee Pannu: I would like to play Indira Gandhi

Finally, the much awaited movie, Naam Shabana has hit cinema halls across the nation. In an interview ahead of the release, Shabana Khan herself a.k.a the bold and beautiful Taapsee Pannu gets quite chit-chatty about her journey as Shabana Khan and the road ahead. Here are excerpts from the interview:

Shabana is a character that every woman would love to play onscreen. How did you bag the role?
The role, thank God, it was supposed to be done only by me because of the connect with Baby because it’s a spin off of Baby. So my character in Baby was just a 15 – 20 minutes role in total. So thanks to the reaction of the audience. I think they are the ones whom the seed went into Neeraj Pandey’s head that he needs to write this entire film because people wanted to see more of me after that film. So, thankfully, because of the film’s reactions, Neeraj sir thought let’s make an entire film on her and that’s when he called me and asked me if I will be interested and I was like “Will I be interested? Can this happen first of all?” So yeah, it was too good a feeling and then he had a word with the other cast of Baby and they all gave it a positive reaction. People were readily happy to come on board and make this project happen. I mean, look at the names backing it up; be it in the cameos or the star cast or behind the camera, I think I cannot put it in words how a two film old girl, at that time I was only two films old, can have this kind of an enormous support from such big names in the industry that she got to do something like a titular role so early in her career.

In Pink, of course, Amitabh was an important character but the film was based on three women and you were one among them. In The Ghazi Attack also you stood tall and now in Naam Shabana also you are playing the lead protagonist. How does it feel to be the poster girl of female – centric movies? Do you think that it’s the best time for women in the film industry?

Definitely! If you see the record, in the last two – three years, the number of female-centric films, I’ll say where the protagonist is a female, the frequency of these films have increased so much in the last couple of years. Now you talk about all the leading ladies of the country, they are doing a film that’s based on a female protagonist. And on an average, one film, a month, will be the one in which a female is the protagonist of the film. So, I think it has been a huge change that we have been witnessing in the last couple of years and it will only go upwards from there because the kind of response we are getting is also very good.

On Women’s Day, you and Swara Bhaskar shot for this powerful video which dealt with “how much cleavage is good cleavage”. Are there any other issues in the society that you would want to address?

The issue that I most strongly feel about is the fact that we need to stop getting dependent on others to come and help us. We need to be our own hero. You need to take charge of your safety in your own hands trust me, it’s not difficult. It’s just a psychological block that we can’t do it. Otherwise, there is nothing called as impossible or difficult for us.

A lot of biopics are being made. Would you want to be a part of any?

I have been extremely keen on doing a sports film. If I do that, then someone like Sania Mirza. Otherwise, Indira Gandhi. I think not just one film, I think we would have to make 10 films on her life that will do justice to her.

Go watch Naam Shabana today. Let us know what you think!