India’s Taapsee Pannu Reveals New Producing, Acting Projects and ‘Shah Rukh Khan in Rajkumar Hirani World’ Film ‘Dunki’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Naman Ramachandran
·5 min read
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Top Indian actor and emerging producer Taapsee Pannu is on a tear with a welter of projects lined up.

Pannu debuted as a producer with horror-thriller “Blurr” (2022) that she co-produced via her Outsiders Films. The company’s next, “Dhak Dhak,” which follows four women who set out for a road trip to the highest motorable pass in the world on a motorbike journey of self-discovery, went on theatrical release on Oct. 13. While “Blurr” starred Pannu, “Dhak Dhak” sees her serving as a producer only and stars Ratna Pathak Shah, Dia Mirza, Fatima Sana Sheikh and Sanjana Sanghi. “Dhak Dhak” is produced by Outsiders, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, BLM Pictures and One India Stories.

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“When you release a film, that’s a different monster altogether, nobody’s understanding why you want to release this film in theaters, because it has no big stars, it’s got no formula and no conventional commercial Indian cinema trope to it,” Pannu said. Pannu was speaking with Variety at Toronto’s BMO International Film Festival of South Asia (IFFSA), where “Blurr” is screening and she is delivering a masterclass.

Pannu says that the conundrum faced by smaller films in India is that studios are not willing to spend on P&A because they have already recovered their costs from pre-sales to streamers. On the other hand, in most cases, the streamers will only buy these films if they’ve had theatrical releases and the studios do a “token release,” Pannu said. She added that the sad part of these releases is that it gives a “flop tag” to the film and its tainted by the tag for the viewing audience when it streams, because “nobody understood that it was never publicized or pushed out like a normal film, it was just thrown down the bin. So these are the kinds of struggles that I woke up to as a producer.”

The other struggle is being taken seriously as a woman in the male-dominated Bollywood producing industry. “There’s a big ego tussle initially. When you’re an female actor, as it is there are problems for a lot of people to listen to you, but just because you’re a star, they still give in to it, because if you’re a star and you’re the one on whose name the film is selling, they still listen to you,” Pannu said. “But when you become a producer, now you’re not the star in the film, then calling the shots is more difficult for a female to make people take take her seriously.”

Nevertheless, Pannu soldiers on in what she describes as a “war zone.” “This gap between a good actor who can really do wonders to a character, and a star on whom the movie can be mounted is so huge in India and nobody is really working to bridge this glass ceiling, people are just hoping that one fine day by luck you get a film, which will make us from an actor to a star. Otherwise, we’ll keep struggling between getting funds for a film that’s driven by purely actors and non-stars,” Pannu said. “I wanted to bridge this and make more stars who we can really put money on, budgets will be sanctioned on those people’s name, people will come and watch their film because they are a part of it, these names need to be created, then only our film industry as a business is going to flourish.”

Pannu has three projects in development as a producer – a witty comedy series written by Manu Joseph (Netflix’s “Decoupled” and “Serious Men”); a film about an army widow who becomes an army officer; and a romantic comedy film.

As an actor, Pannu who works in both Bollywood and the South Indian film industries, is known for her eclectic choice of roles including “Thappad,” for which she won best actress at India’s Filmfare awards, “Manmarziyaan,” “Badla” and “Mulk.”

Next up is hitmaker Rajkumar Hirani’s “Dunki,” headlined by Shah Rukh Khan, which is due a Christmas release. Khan has had a humongous 2023, starring in the two biggest Indian hits of the year so far – “Jawan” and “Pathaan.” (Hirani has enjoyed huge success with intelligent comedies such as “Lage Raho Munna Bhai” and “3 Idiots.”)

Pannu is tightlipped about her role in the film but says that it will live up to expectations. “If after ‘Pathaan’ and ‘Jawaan,’ people are feeling that it’s going to be another big magnum opus of action, no it’s not going to be that. It is Shah Rukh Khan in Rajkumar Hirani world, it is all of us in Rajkumar Hirani world. It’s got the humor and emotion of his films, you’re gonna laugh, you’re gonna cry, you’re gonna take something back home which he very subtly conveys without harping too hard on it. There’s always a certain takeaway in his films and this film is also going to do that.”

The actor also has Tamil-language sci-fi film “Alien,” which she says has the potential to be a franchise; and Hindi-language films including thriller “Phir Aayi Haseen Dillruba,” the sequel to 2021 hit “Haseen Dillruba”; and comedies “Woh Ladki Hai Kahaan” and “Khel Khel Mein” coming up.

IFFSA runs Oct. 12-22.

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