Was Asked To Slash My Price Because Of Male Co-Stars: Taapsee Pannu On Sexism In Bollywood

Taapsee Pannu revealed in an interview a few years ago that she was treated quite poorly in Bollywood initially, even after being a superstar in the South-Indian film industry. Back then, no one asked her about how bad the situation really was. However, in a recent interview with a digital publication, Taapsee revealed the extent of misogyny and sexism she had to go through when she started her career in Bollywood.

The Thappad actress revealed that from being trolled for her looks to being replaced by actors and their wives, she had faced it all. Taapsee said, “I faced some really weird things in the beginning like she isn’t pretty enough. I’ve been replaced because the hero’s wife didn’t want me to be part of the film. I was dubbing for one of my films and I was told that the hero didn’t like my dialogue so I should change it. When I refused to change it, they got a dubbing artiste to do it behind my back.”

That definitely is quite weird but what’s shocking is, there’s more! Taapsee also opened up on how her male co-actors felt intimidated with her character’s arc and how filmmakers fed the ego of their heroes. “There was a time when I was told the hero’s previous film didn’t work, so you slash your price because we need to control the budget. There was some hero who wanted my introduction scene changed because he felt it would overpower his introduction scene,” she added. 

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With empowering movies like Naam Shabana and Pink, the fans might have assumed that such glorious days of toxic masculinity in the entertainment industry was approaching its much-needed end–sadly, that’s far from true.

Thankfully, Taapsee decided to take a stand against such unfairness and actually do films that made sense and were inspiring. She said, “I decided that from now on, I will only take up films that will make me genuinely happy to go to work. People advised me against it because there might be a point of no return. Whenever a girl has tried to do women-driven films there’s a tag that’s attached to her and male stars are then hesitant to take her as their leading lady. It might be a little harder, longer journey but it’s going to be one that I’m going to enjoy each day. It has worked out till now.” Attagirl, Tapsee!

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The Badla actress also opened up on mental health and social media toxicity. She explained that there was a time when she was called ‘bad luck charm’ in articles but she never forgot the difference between what’s real and virtual. She concluded, “Social media has generated so much hate, I call it illusional hate. Illusional because it is virtual. When I had gone to the Maldives, where your only medium of talking to people was social media and you saw so much hate day in day out that you started believing there’s so much hatred everywhere. But I almost teared up with the kind of love those people showered over me in Maldives, It made me realise the difference between virtual and real.”

Kudos Taapsee! We’re a sucker for good women-oriented movies and we hope to see some amazing performances in your upcoming movies Rashmi Rocket and Haseen Dulraba.

Feature Image: Instagram