Watch | 'I am a very painful person to work with': Taapsee Pannu

Taapsee Pannu is known for the break pathing scripts that she chooses over regular mundane rom-coms and drams. Looking back at her body of work she can worked in Pink, Mulk and many such films which has shown the mirror to the society, Her next Thappad, which releases on February 28, happened after she told director Anubhav Sinha during the making of Mulk that she would now like to work on a film dealing with the everyday problem of domestic violence.

Ahead of the release of the film Taapsee at the press meet held last evening in Mumbai's inox theatre spoke in length about the grave issue of domestic violence and why the issue needs to raised, She also spoke about the controversies surrounding her and why she is coined as the female version of Ayushmann.

Excerpts!

Why she chose Thappad!

80 per cent of women go through this reported or unreported, be it pushing, hitting or slapping, just because it didn't happen at my house doesn't mean this doesn't happen in our neighbourhood. This issue is shown in the films but in a very submissive manner. So when Anubhav sir came up with this I sat on this idea. I would have fought with him if someone else did the film."

"In fact, I am a very painful person to work with, I ask a lot of questions. People listen to you. They may agree or disagree with you, but they will listen to you. In this day and age, who has the time to even do that? If you have been given that kind of power, then you can use that power in the right direction sometimes. with great power comes greater responsibility.

On gender and Pay parity

There are things about gender parity and pay parity, but you cannot change that by just shouting that 'this is not right'. You have to ensure that people start to recognize that change through your work. Maybe the new generation will not see the difference but the generation next to us will.

Taapsee is very vocal on social media and often falls prey to controversies for the same.

The last controversy surrounding the Mulk actor was when producer Tanuj Garg called Taapsee 'Bollywood's female version of Ayushmann Khurrana' on Twitter, to which the actor sportingly replied, 'What about calling me Bollywood ki pehli Taapsee Pannu?'

On Taapsee being called as the female version of Ayushmann

I know that Tanuj's intention was good. He is the producer of Run Lola Run and he has been very supportive of me for years now. I know his intention but I have been hearing a lot from people recently - 'you choose your films the way Ayushmann does.

You are the female version of Ayushmann'. "I'm like 'wonderful that this guy is doing fabulous work but why am I supposed to be known by his name'?" Ayushmann choosing to do different kinds of films should not become a reason for her being called his female version, So I tweeted and that became huge. I guess, as women, we have been seen through male benchmarks so much that whenever something like this happens, our antenna is up.

"I have a clear mind. I have rarely had grey areas in my life where you are confused about what you want to do. I don't know where it comes from but this has really helped me in the long run.

This is why when I have to criticize something, I don't do it for the wrong reason. I don't target people. So I don't get that kind of backlash. You can take a dig at me but I will never answer that and that's my cheap thrill. Life is really small and I have to do a lot so I will not spend my time or energy on you.

With five more films in the offing, Taapsee is busier than ever and said it has taken her a while to reach a place where she can do the films she wants to.

Thappad is set to hit the theatres on February 28 apart from Taapsee the film also features Pavail Gulati, Ratna Pathak Shah, Kumud Mishra, Tanvi Azmi and Dia Mirza in key roles.