Taapsee Pannu Got Emotional On The Sets Of Thappad, This Dialogue Reminded Her Of Her Mother

Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu has said she never realised the importance of what her mom - a housewife - does until very recently and admitted that she has realised a lot casual sexism in our daily lives.

Speaking with Barkha Dutt in an interview, Taapsee said, “All the time. Everywhere. (Getting to see the sacrifice of woman being normalised). I will rarely have examples for those who will not do this or see that they have an equal (right in marriage). There is a beautiful line that I came across recently ‘Shadi me hum ek to ho jate hain, barabar nahi hote hain (We become one in marriage, not equals)’. I think I see it everywhere. In my own house, between my mother and father. My mother always makes sure dad is happy, he eats first. Everything is first about him, which I have grown up and felt this is normal. This is how it is supposed to happen.”

“Fortunately or unfortunately, I never had a brother so I never witnessed any difference of the male-female gender. You see it everywhere around. All my friends are married, I see the same thing happening there. The mother-in-law’s character (in Thappad) is very similar to my mother. She might not be as bitter, yet, but it’s the same. Yes, she (Taapsee’s mother) is (bitter). She does feel she needs more attention because she dedicated her entire life for three of us -me, my sister and my father - and all of us are way too busy in our lives to give her any time and attention. She does complain at times.”

“I do my best to give her time, as much as I can. But I didn’t hear her. I feel I can get her better every year. The older I am getting I am getting to feel her better, that yes, she deserves more attention for what all she has done. When I started working is when I realised the importance of what she was doing, until then we were in a protected environment and were living in a given set of rules. Only when I started working I realised how important the kind of work my mother is doing at home, is and how important it is to have her even if it is behind the scene kind of work. Not really front-runner of the house but it is so important, the backbone of the house. When I started working, I began realising all of this, It is more of a story of transforming from a girl to a woman.”

 Also read: On Sridevi’s second death anniversary, daughter Janhvi Kapoor’s moving note: ‘Miss you everyday’. See their pic together

Adding that her mother is yet to watch the movie, Taapsee revealed that every time she read a dialogue, she was choked up. She tells her onscreen mother-in-law in the film, “College me kai dreams the kabhi best housewife banane ka dream nahi tha. (I had a lot of dreams in college and being the best housewife was not one of them).”

“What you onscreen in that scene, that is real. Whenever I used to read that line, I used to choke up. Of course (I kept thinking of my mom). A lot of times (during the shoot).I can relate to a lot of things (my Thappad character and mother) because that is my only reference point,” Taapsee said, agreeing that her character has shades of her mother.

“She chose this, because she thought it would be best for her. She was not taught any better, nothing to take away from any housewife. But think when she chose this, we could have done better,” Taapsee said.

Asked about her support to anti-CAA protests, Taapsee said, “These are the same students that whenever our film comes out, we go to them begging to buy tickets and watch out movies. And when they have been hit so brutally, we are just so quite. We don’t have anything to do with you. That’s such one-way and selfish love that you expect out of your audience. They don’t know you personally, you expect them to do the prachaar of your film, buy tickets and watch your film. And when they need your support, you are just gonna go quite? I don’t think my conscience could allow that.”

Asked if she feared the backlash online, Taapsee quipped, “If I say the weather is nice, I will get backlash. A woman on Twitter, let’s just accept it and then work around it. Asked if she feared her stand on a political issue might affect her film, Taapsee added, “You can’t sell your spine and eat out it.”