Taapsee Pannu is in a great phase in her career with a variety of films that she is part of. From a science drama to playing a shooter- the actor will showcase empowered women on the big screen yet again. In a tete-a-tete, Taapsee talks about her upcoming project Mission Mangal, taking on strong characters with a voice, and the impact her roles have had on real people. Excerpts.

It actually didn’t require too much prep as I am very familiar with these scientific terms because I have studied engineering. I did this film for the sake of story that it is first of its kind in India, and the fact that I will get to share the screen with some wonderful actors, which rarely happens in the industry. So, I didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity.

There are many notions which have been there for years, be it you can’t you can’t be good at shooting or driving, there have been notions attached to genders. Because women were not supposed to do these jobs, which is unlike for people to see these visuals now, and to see women do things which they were not supposed to do until some time back. We are in that changing phase; you can’t expect that change to happen overnight. We will keep hearing all this until we are part of this changing phase. We are at the cusp of it, we mustn’t give up.

It has happened to me multiple times. It started off from Pink, then Naam Shabana, and even Manmarziyaan. I am happy that people expect no less when I take on a role; dealing with the strength of a woman and being proud of it. Now, these have become expectations. After Manmarziyaan, I got many letters from women, thanking me for showing what a woman can want from a relationship and it is okay. I will be let down if I don’t get that kind of love with every film I do.

It is great people notice that, also then those same people can do something about the collections of a female driven film. Because Akshay Kumar will get the audience in the theatre, that is the hard fact. All of us are great work in our own capacities. But, he will still manage to get a bigger number, at the end of the day. We cannot run away from this reality. Whatever issue happened with the poster, hope people realise it and do something about rather than questioning the makers. The audience can change things by walking into theatres where women are at the forefront.