I wanted to call out the unprofessionalism: Taapsee Pannu on Pati Patni Aur Woh controversy

Earlier this month, Taapsee Pannu shared her displeasure over being "unceremoniously" replaced in Juno Chopra's Pati Patni Aur Woh. She says her intention was not to target a particular person but to speak up against a practice which exploits actors.

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Taapsee Pannu will be seen next in Badla. (Source: Taapsee Pannu/Facebook)

Earlier this month, actor Taapsee Pannu shared her displeasure over being “unceremoniously” replaced in Juno Chopra’s Pati Patni Aur Woh. In a joint statement, Chopra and co-producer Bhushan Kumar said they had never finalised the actor and had only considered her for a role among other stars.

Days later, they announced the film would star Kartik Aryan, Bhumi Pednekar and newcomer Ananya Pandya. Ananya is Chunky Pandey’s daughter and will make her Bollywood debut with Karan Johar’s production, Student of the Year 2, later this year.

“The struggle doesn’t really end. And I signed up for it. I knew it when I started out,” Taapsee said about being at the receiving end of lack of professionalism despite having earned a position in the industry.

When asked if this is the case because she is an outsider, she replied, “Yes. Mostly because of that. And it will stay like that. This is the rule of the game and I can’t be cribbing about it every day. Today I have the power to call it out and I did. Thankfully, I am in a position where I have enough work. If I would have been in a position where I didn’t have enough work, they would have said I am doing it to get attention. That I am making noise.”

Taapsee Pannu went on to say that her intention was not to target a particular person but to speak up against a practice which exploits actors.

She said, “One film out of my career is not going to make me lose a National Award. The problem wasn’t that. The problem was unprofessionalism which I wanted to call out. I didn’t want to target a particular person or a group of people.

“That wasn’t the idea. Otherwise, I would have responded to them by publishing the texts that would prove that I was asked to come at (specific) date and block dates. I didn’t want to go to that level. There is no point getting bitter or making it ugly because my idea was to call out this practice which is wrong and should not happen to any other actor.”

Besides Badla, which releases this March, Taapsee Pannu has Anurag Kashyap’s Saand ki Aankh, co-starring Bhumi Pednekar. The actors have begun shooting for the film, based on India’s oldest sharpshooters Chandro and Prakashi Tomar.