'On all my legal documents my dad kept my name as T-A-P-A-S-E-E'

Your uniqueness in showbiz starts with your name itself Do you know any other Taapsee Pannu in the worldI know TapsiDoubleA P S and doubleEOn all my legal documents my dad actually kept my name as TAPASEEThats whats in your passportYes By the time I was old enough to say Dad please dont do this to me it was too late TAPSI for him in numerology wasnt good enough It needed to have two Es and an extra A for some weird reason Thats TAPASEE my name In school during roll call the teacher would stop at roll number 47 and go Taa Taahellip Being used to it Id just say Taapsee Pannu present maamI was not fine with correcting every Indian out there That it is Tapsi not Tapasee For screen I just shifted my dads two As to make it TaapseeTaapsee Pannu in conversation with Mayank Shekhar at the latest edition of Sit With Hitlist before a live audience at the midday office PicsNimesh DaveStarting out did no South producer ask you to make it closer to say Jaya PradaThank God I wasnt ready to change these basic things about myself for anything or anyone And I really like my unique name among thousands of Poojas and Nehas who simultaneously turn around when their names get calledNo knock on Poojas Nehas before they started trolling you on Twitter okayIm used to people going after me on Twitter so its fine But even they would agree Im sureThe other intriguing thing about you is youd never acted before hitting the screen mdash not in even in schoolcollegeWell I was pretty dramatic in life so really didnt need the drama before camera or audience Im a professionally trained dancer In that sense performing on stage has been my first love and I was into public speaking And I thought why should I pretend to be someone else with acting A teacher did once force me to act on stage in lieu of allowing me to host the show I have no memories of that first and last stage experience other than the fact that I moved back to hostingAlso ReadTaapsee Pannu People moving beyond concept of nobrainer filmsAfter all that from Delhi you land up straight down South to act that too in a language you didnt know at allIm an experimentally unpredictable person Even I dont know what Im going to do next During college my parents would say Khud kamaoge toh pata chalega paise ki value So I said Dekh lete hai kamake kaisa hota hai I started modelling It was simple I could manage with studies which I never wanted to give up for anything In third year Id already got placed at Infosys But in my final year when I took CAT I had got an 88 percentile I could work Or join a BSchool But I knew I could do better in CAT So I decided to take a gap yearhellipBasically IIMs or noneYeah my way or the highway During that year being the hyperactive person I am mdash just sitting at home studying was driving me crazy Modelling went out the window because it was getting too boring I had stopped it in my third year itself And then I began getting calls for films from the South They get a lot of girls from North who dont speak the language They were like We can teach youll be comfortable They were more confident about my skills than I was So I thought fine let me give it a shot I wanted to try something different I went down there with my CAT books which I couldnt even open because I was so deeply into those dialogue sheets in a language I had never heard in my life I didnt think it was going to be so difficultBack in the day many Bollywood actors said 1 2 3 4 for dialogues in the SouthEven Ive heard that I cant I cant take prompting either because it distracts me Also Im a science student so not good with rattofying lines I began to learn them by heart because of which I was one of the first actresses from the North who dubbed for herself in Telugu I wasnt as consistent with Tamil But I learnt bothHave seen some of your Tamil interviews You reply in EnglishYeah Tamil is only incoming no outgoing But Telugu it happens both waysSpeaking of languages you graduated in computer engineeringYes I loved the study part of it Basically I was a proud frontbencher whenever I was in class answering questions following up with whats happening This was of course rare Because I was always outside for some competition modelling assignment or the other I have been a jack of all trades master of noneWere you the only girl in classImagine that being Taapsee good for the guysLaughs No there were 12 girls in a class of 60 Not that bad Yeah the ratio is quite off But its not the same Taapsee Pannu as youre looking at right now Im sure they my classmates do a doubletake every day when they look at what Im doing nowThe many moods of the actor as she regales the audience with anecdotesIn that sense you defy the rightbrain creative leftbrain analytical skills theory where one is supposed to be only strong at eitherSomething really crazy happened up here laughs There is a weird kind of balance that has coexisted within me since I was a child Even now I have a certain bent of mind where I run certain businesses and I have fair idea about marketing of films as well At the same time I choose films that arent conventionally marketsavvyAs an actor youre what they call a onetake artiste where you psyche yourself into becoming a particular person and it all comes out in an unrepeatable go Must be scary for the director rightI will give a second take But I warn directors that it probably wont be as good as the first That is how it is And that is actually a negative that comes from not being a trained actor I dont know how to get that moment back again Once I empty myself the first time on its very difficult to fill myself up with the same ingredientsWould you be scared though if they didnt like your first takeNo because then theyll tell me that Im going in the wrong direction And that is a totally new thing for me The scary thing is if theres a technical glitch in a crucial shot that they dont want to get rid of Ive had directors say theyre okay mdasheven if slightly out of focusAlso View PhotosHave you seen these candid pictures of Taapsee PannuDoes it then become harder for you to get in and out of that shotcharacter as wellI laugh about the fact that Im becoming a crazy person with every film I rid 90 per cent of a character from my system and 10 per cent stays changing something in meGive an instanceIll give you an example During Manmarziyaan my sister and I went out for dinner We were standing at the pavement waiting for the driver to get the car There was a man at the red signal slyly taking out his camera on a bike Its not like he asked for a picture Im a public figure not a public property like Qutub Minar or something Theres a clear differenceAnd you whacked the shit out of himI in Rumimode went Phone andar rakh le nahi toh tod dungi My sister was like Im not with her I also instantly realised this is not meThat guy should be glad you hadnt stepped out of Game OverLaughs My sister was actually worried after Badla wondering who Ill kill once I come back I knew thats not a good character to bring home With Game Over I was getting borderline depressed I had to keep thinking about my biggest fears again and again for 35 days every single day for 12 hours I used to text my sister since she is my only bouncing board I dont freak my parents out It would be quite scary for them to see their daughter going through these mental ups and downsAlso ReadGame Over Movie Review Super unnatural thrillerHave you considered seeing a therapist after a roleI thought about it couple of times But I go on a vacation after every film as a ritual If I feel it the character is still not leaving me I will Until now its been fineWhat happened after Pink Thats another character whos been through traumaBefore Pink I never thought I could cry without glycerine I never used glycerine in Pink During that shoot in Delhi thankfully I was staying with parents It was all fine But after the film got over I would cry at the drop of a hat Id look at a beggar and cry Im watching Jana Gana Mana on television and Im crying I dont know what had really changedYou please take care okayLaughs Yeah Im trying Ive some really good people around to keep me saneGuess movies like Judwaa 2 Chashme Baddoor help tooA lot Sometimes in that world youre made to realise that you dont really belong here Its almost like a favour that youre getting to do this role In this alternative side of the world where most of my filmography belongs they wonder why I have to succumb or downgrade myself to do that So either way I hear shit from both sides laughs I might be the only one to create that middle path that probably didnt exist before at least youll remember me for itIf one were to look at turning point for Hindi films for you Id guess its literally that kickass introduction scene in Baby You just unexpectedly popped up like a storm havent looked back since Take us through that sceneId just finished Chashme Baddoor first Hindi film looking for the next And I wanted to up my game Id heard of a film with two girls mdash one cast opposite Akshay Kumar sir the other whos an agent with around 10 minutes on screen but an action sequence by herself Something in me suggested I should go after that role I kept pushing the casting director to fix a meeting with Neeraj Pandey sir who had seen me as a coy shy girl in Chashme So obviously I wouldnt qualify When I met Neeraj sir he gave me dialogues that I just read It was not an audition otherwise I wouldve failed He just spoke to me about my athletic side I was a lot into sport Somehow he was convincedYoud done martial artsNo but I was extremely physically active So it martial art would look natural on someone whos into sport I began training for martial arts Now I had this injury from my dancing days While trying to do a split I had once injured my ligament That injury started resurfacing with those high kicks I was practicing for Baby I was so scared to tell anyone about it lest I lose that role So I would train for two hours then go for physiotherapy for an hour mdash every day for six to seven weeks The first scene we shot for Baby in the Nepal schedule was my fight There were two days kept for it We finished it in a day I had also taken Vitamin B and D injections to make sure it the injury doesnt resurface After the scene when I told them about this injury and how I was so scared to lose the role They went Stupid we wouldnt have done thatThat scene might as well be the first to inspire an entire film mdash Naam ShabanaBasically Ive realised what works for me is when people dont expect anything People did not expect that in an Akshay Kumar film anyone will have a substantial role Or even in Pink for that matter with Amitabh Bachchan being thereMulk as a drama would be a natural followup to PinkApart from the courtroom drama I dont think anything else was similar I think Pink was very vulnerable Mulk wasntDid you similarly go as deep into MulkMulk was more like an inner voice wanting to use my mediums power as an actor to say what I wanted to say I was the first actor to read the script in Anubhav Sinha sirs office I told him right there that I was on That last summation dialogue was something I started preparing for in my head from the day I read the script I was waiting to do that twopagerSingle takeYeah There were five cameras running together We had 100120 junior artistes given the last day of courtroom sequence I said Just keep cameras running come what may Call cut only if theres something drastically going wrong Otherwise dont We rolled A new actor on set started coughing She didnt know how sync sound works Or that she could just go out I finished the whole sequence Everybody stood up and clapped It was a surreal moment A junior artiste handed me a signed note saying Youll be the number one actress of Bollywood very soon and leftWhat about the cough soundThen Anubhav sir walks towards me with the sound designer and I was like I just want to go die right now Dont know if I can do this again That new actor was in tears I cant even get angry at her because poor girl its not her fault I did that shot again But eventually Anubhav sir cleaned up sound kept the first takeWas Badla a lot less stressfulYeah I could just act because she the character was acting there as Naina Sethi And I easily knew what I should do to make it look realStupid question fair warning If I recall right theres a scene in Badla where your coactor surprised by some answer of yours says If this is true then Im Amitabh Bachchan Now if Bachchan already exists in the fictional space the film is in then you would know its him when he walks through the door noNahin That Amitabh Bachchan is not the Amitabh Bachchan in the head of the person saying that line It was Manavs Kaul impromptu addition to the dialogue not how it was written Sujoy Ghosh found it very funny I was like whatever if you guys are fineYouve called your character in Manmarziyaan the closest to you as a person Did that make it easier for you to playThe part that was hard to play was the fact that she goes back to the boyfriend after getting married I am not that confused in life Im very black and white with everything And Rumi is always grey It was very difficult for me to get audiences to root for this character who is not loyal to the husband I took it up as a challenge doing it innocently but with much conviction Im hopelessly loyal as a personDiehard romantic typeI might have dated a lot of people but Ive been 100 per cent there And if it doesnt work out and I feel like going with someone else I will cut this off completely And then go So that overlap didnt make sense to me What the writer Kanika Dhillon told me is that if it wasnt for that conflictscene then its a cakewalk for the character And I agreedI liked that Abhishek Bachchans Robbie while being the corporate bore mdash compared to the happening Vicky Vicky Kaushal mdash wasnt shown to be a complete doofus given how suits are often stereotyped in popular films Which of the two would you have picked in real lifeAs Taapsee I would have chosen Robbie any day I am not comfortable with people who dont really know where their head hand and feet are Vicky was that confused He just never had a spine Only had heartHed be more fun to be withYeah but fun means I can be friends with them Robbie had a sense of humour at times And he had this whole thing of I am yours will be yoursmdashthat maturity level to handle someone like Rumi Robbie was very close to the kind of man Id want to be withYou are also an entrepreneur running a weddingplanning company invested in a badminton team which you dont talk about How do you handle them on a daytoday basis Mohar BasuLet me clear this misconception It is not that I dont talk about it Its people who dont want to acknowledge and glorify the fact that an actress from a middleclass background is doing this simultaneously And not because she doesnt believe in her future as an actress But because she just wants to Only business magazines end up mentioning it a little bit here and thereHave you seen the show Made In Heaven does weddingplanning business really work like thatLaughs The chaos behind organising a wedding and making it look like the way it does is the same But as far as I know my company doesnt delve into the personal life of the bride and groom get them together or separated As for daytoday management I dont my sister does I only go for key meetings And Im part of marketing ideas on how to grow the business With badminton the tournament and auction happen once a year I have a proper office working for the rest of the monthsApparently your team hits bad luck whenever youre in the standsLaughs That was happening And I was sitting in the toilet in the same seat throughout because we were winning Trust me it was very difficult to get investors on board for this I gave some 2030 odd presentations and I finally got one investor out of them It is not easy just because Im an actor But its helped me grow as a person I make time for itWhats the craziest thing a fan has done for you Karishma KakarThere was this one guy after my first Telugu film who just felt like giving me his first salute before he joined his IPS police training And he did I dont know why That was quite crazyYouve simultaneously worked in Tamil Telugu which are also distinct industries and Hindi films How different is the kind of reception you get from eachVery different In this I can generalise between Tamil and Telugu to contrast it with Hindi audiences They in the South are very passionate movie fans Even if youre one or twofilm old and your film has worked they might not be your diehard fans but because they are movie fans they will be crazy about you Passion for films is that highFor film stars noYouve come in a film youre a star for them Its a ritual for them to watch a film every weekend And theyll give you a chance Its not like in Hindi where we get tired telling the public Meri picture aa rahi hai please trailer dekh lo Here only when the wordofmouth spreads that you take time off your busy schedule and give the film a chanceDo you think Hindi audiences have become jadedHonestly dont know the reasonDo you feel more like a star in HyderabadChennaiYeah youre larger than life when you are a star in the South Here everybody and anybody who is sitting on a set is a starInteresting Which one would you prefer to beI should not complain either way Because I am getting to live both worlds If I want to feel like a queen I can go down South Or I can just do one Hindi film and they make me see the reality mdash that you are nowhere and you are here only laughsBollywood makes you feel that Youve spoken about how you still feel like the outsiderI dont see that as a negative feeling It is my big USP or weapon of sorts My point of view of a lot of characters probably looks real because Ive lived it and Im really happy for that And to an extent I have kept myself away from the social circle of the industry My day ends at 10 pm begins at 6307 amYou sound like Akshay Kumar to me you also do about four films a yearI wish Even if I wouldve achieved half of what he has Ill retire Also I really dont want those conversations of films and the film industry seeping into my real lifeYouve spoken about how youve been kicked out of films because you werent recommended by people from certain familiesYes and it still happens And it is a rule of the game and I accepted it long backBut it pisses you off rightOf course you feel really angry and you vent it out I do it in front of my sister My sister always has the same answer mdashthat I always knew about it It happens in every industryYou publicly sarcastically cribbed about it when you were left out of Filmfare popular award nominations despite having three big releases the same yearActually two years back it affected me the most when Pink happened because I was snubbed then as well Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar told me Apne kapde silwa le iss saal bade award milenge tujhko People were just crying while interviewing me because of the role that had touched them so deeplyWhich is true yesAfter all that you are not even nominated in a lot of awards and totally snubbed that year That broke my heart I thought Ill do something Ill give such films every year that people will start asking you the organisers Why are you snubbing her I was snubbed last year as well But this year things changed Because it became so evidently shameless that people started questioning Now they cant turn back and say shes bitter cribbing or crying I am not saying anything My audience isYou also speak about how you get far more recognition from the public than peers in the film industryYes But since when did peer validation become the true hallmark I am fine with being the underdog I am still not in the socalled list of 5 actresses to be rated in the order of their performances But I am still the same actress whose films are the highest rated in the year Let the validation come in from the public None of these peers whose validation we expect are paying for the movie ticket So it doesnt matterCatch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates