Taapsee Pannu's first release of 2021 was a digital one with Haseen Dillruba (2021), directed by Vinil Mathew. The actress was part of a recent actors' roundtable, hosted by Netflix, along with Raveena Tandon, Konkona Sensharma, Sanya Malhotra, Tovino Thomas and Adarsh Gourav, where she discussed working on the pulpy thriller.
Pannu said her character in the film, Rani, was not someone with whom she easily identified but she enjoyed taking on that challenge after acting in a film like Manmarziyaan (2018).
She explained, "I believe if the audience can believe that my character does what it does without any malice in my heart, then I am home. That is the same reason I wanted to be a part of Haseen Dillruba as well. Somehow [screenwriter] Kanika (Dhillon) makes me do these kinds of roles again and again. Vinil and I were very mindful of the fact that she is the protagonist of the film and you can't afford for the audience to get disconnected from the protagonist.”
“So I can not make my character do something that may confuse my audience as to why do something like this - they should understand why my character does it,” she added. “That's the only honesty I need to maintain with my audience and that’s how Vinil and I did Haseen Dillruba.”
The actress also said she eventually got the project after several others had turned it down for reasons ranging from the grey shades of the character to the actor in the film.
Earlier this year before the release, she had said, “Haseen Dillruba was a film I had a very strong gut feeling about the day I heard the basic idea from Kanika. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the first choice for the film and it came to me after all their options were exhausted. The good old saying that if it’s meant for you it will come to you stands true in this case.”
Haseen Dillruba, which also stars Vikrant Massey, Harshvardhan Rane and Aditya Shrivastava, was premiered on Netflix on 2 July.
Watch the full actors’ roundtable below: