TAAPSEE PANNU: South Indian film industry is passion-driven

Rana Siddiqui Zaman | NT

Bengaluru: A 23-year-old Malayali boy from Kerala, Shams, living in Bangalore swears that “most Mallus absolutely adore Taapsee Pannu. I watch her films first day, first show. My brothers, friends and I have a competition about who likes her best,” he says while looking at her pictures on her instagram account. Shams says he knows a little bit of Tamil too. Pannu finds it a little surprising, for she hasn’t worked in Malayalam except “Doubles”.

The discussion leads to an exclusive interview with her while she had earlier insisted that she isn’t giving any interviews for “few months.” News Trail just got a bit lucky that way..

Has there been a marked difference of say, culture, remuneration and other things in South and Hindi films

Apart from the difference of language and culture, which would always be different in different language films from any part of India, so is remuneration depending upon the size of the industry and its economy but the difference in the crew on sets and cinema makers of Hindi and south Indian cinema is this - the crew in the south is passion-driven.

They set all guns blazing, putting their life on fire for anything that cinema requires. While people in Hindi cinema approach it as a job; though they love cinema, but it’s not like their life and death is dependent on it, especially the younger generation takes cinema very professionally.

So I can easily say that in South India, cinema is passion-driven, and Hindi cinema it is more profession-driven.

Why people in the south love you? One has seen so many Malayalis as your die-hard fans. You think its natural acting or sheer bubbliness of yours that works?

This surprises me because I didn’t have much presence in Kannada and Malayalam cinema. For instance, I have done just one Malayalam film, “Doubles” in which I just had a cameo.

Perhaps, they see me in my Tamil and Telegu films and that’s how they know me. I am sure they have not seen variations in my films, whether or not they felt I am a natural actor, I am not sure but most of the films I did were mainstream, playing to the gallery.

I don’t think I have done so much performance-wise there for them to remember me. Most of my characters I did were easy-to-do, and easily replaceable.

For sure, I have done films which suited my type and tried making most of it so probably that would have stayed with them a little longer? I was just lucky enough to work with some of the biggest stars of the south Indian cinema (such as Mohan Lal….) that also must have added to the popularity?

I also feel one of the reasons is south of India takes cinema very seriously, religiously. Watching cinema is the thing to do in their lives. They are cinema-obsessed. Regardless of how big or small a film is, they always give cinema a chance. It’s not like you have to push a film down their throat, promote it to the hilt and persuade them to watch it.

Cinema lovers in the south watch almost every film and the words spread faster there. Even smaller good films do really well there. It’s not like in Hindi cinema where the public relations has to be very high to stimulate a small film, or relatively new actors.

The impact is slow too. And by the time word of mouth spreads, a bigger films takes them over in the theatres. So, the rise of small cinema in Hindi films is slower than small cinema in the south.

Do you think working in south Indian films help being noticed and vice versa?

Now, definitely yes! But 13 years ago, when I started working in south Indian cinema, it wasn’t like that easy a stepping stone, even if they did, its impact was less.

Because the way you choose film in Hindi and south is very different. It was not very easy to be noticed. Probably one reason and more deference in the cinema makers of the south is that they are very specific about the kind of actresses they accept.

If they like you, they like you instantly. And then this love is forever. But if they don’t like you, you can keep on trying and trying for years but they would just not be able to ‘accept’ you.

It’s not that you can push yourself down to them by doing several films down the years for them to change their opinion. That’s one major feeler I had about filmmakers in the south especially about the actresses.

What impressed you about south Indian cinema?

One thing that really affected me was how they make every penny count. Since they have budget and resource constraints, they make do with their tec