Why Taapsee Pannu will never stop shuttling between Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films

“If I had gotten this script in Hindi, I would have done it,” she says. “But in Hindi they don’t write such a film for a female protagonist. Only in the south do they love this genre and have the courage to write something like this [to be] headed by a female.” Her enthusiasm doubled when she learned that Vijay Sethupathi had agreed to do the film. “It was a pleasant surprise,” she says. “In no industry have I seen a star of his level being so secure to do a film where the female has a title role. I will forever be impressed by him.”

Ever since she made her debut in Vetrimaaran’s National Award-winning film Aadukalam in 2011, Pannu has made it a point to keep doing films in Tamil and Telugu even as her career in Bollywood flourishes. For Pannu there are two reasons she would never give up working in Chennai and Hyderabad. “It comes out of gratitude,” she says, “for making me a star when I am not even from there or know the language. I learned the basics of filmmaking here. I learned from my mistakes too.” By working in multiple languages, Pannu was aware that she was deviating from the path her predecessors had taken. “They would either leave the South and come to the Hindi industry or if things didn’t work [out] here [in Bollywood] they would go back,” says Pannu. “I didn’t want anybody to think that just because things have started working for me in Hindi [cinema] that I consider South a step down.”

Forsaking films in South is a “business blunder” says Pannu, “If you already are working in a language where people are ready to invest money in you and audience is ready to watch you, and you suddenly uproot yourself just because it started working in another language…. I am one of the lucky ones to have a presence across languages and I want to make the most of it.”

It’s why Pannu has films like Game Over to her credit. She has signed on to do another Telugu film, Mishan Impossible. The kind of films she does in the south have changed, she says, ever since she started working in Hindi. She leans towards small-budget films which big heroes may not be drawn to. Many have questioned Pannu’s decision, but for the actress it is simply wanting to “do good films”.

It helps that it makes better business sense to not confine yourself to one language. With OTT platforms the linguistic boundaries are further blurred as audiences watch more films with subtitles or opt for dubbed versions. Pannu herself notices how actors from South are now received and recognised in Mumbai vis-à-vis when she made the shift eight years ago. Pannu remembers being “treated like a struggling newcomer with zero experience” when she decided to give Bollywood a shot.

That’s no longer so. “A star in south is now a star here.” And it isn’t just Bollywood that’s seeking inspiration from south films. Pannu feels that filmmakers in the south are also watching a lot of Hindi cinema now, with remakes of Queen, Pink and Andhadhun being proof. “Now when I go there to work, they refer to the work I have done in Hindi,” says Pannu.