"I Feared Audiences Would Hate My Character In Manmarziyaan" - Taapsee Pannu

Taapsee Pannu has been surpassing her own standards film after film. If it was Mulk till just a few weeks back (which by the way is still running at select theaters), it is Manmarziyaan now. As Rumi, she was always walking a thin rope. After all, you don't really get to play a character like hers who is confused, opportunistic, lively, moody and manipulator, all at the same time. Still, she is 'the heroine' of the film, and this is where the challenges lied for the actress who is experimenting with practically every film of hers.

"That was the core idea," smiles Taapsee, "As a matter of fact when I read the script, I didn't particularly fall off the chair. My biggest fear was that audiences would end up hating my character. After all, she is just swinging away between different moods and is just not able to make up her mind. This is when Kanika (Dhillon), the film's writer told me that I had to accept this challenge because if not for her confused persona, Rumi was just another leading lady in a Hindi film. I had to portray it all, and more, and still ensure that audiences rooted for me."

For someone who is pretty sorted in her real life and understands the clear difference of black and white, the kind of love that she had to portray in Manmarziyaan indeed came with 'grey waala shade'.

"Absolutely," Taapsee continues, "I don't second guess my decisions, I have a clear differentiation between right and wrong, and I know for sure what my next move is going to be. Rumi is nothing like that so I had to bring myself into a zone that I had never entered before. I had to make sure that audiences connected with me, that girls of my age could actually empathize with what I was going through."

All of that paid odd, and how, as she has truly emerged as the star of the show with unanimous appreciation coming her way.

"If I say it has been overwhelming then it may seem like a cliché. However, that is actually true. I have been getting messages, congratulatory calls, the stuff from all over. There are girls who have texted me and I have no clue who they are. They say that they saw a part of them in me. Guess Kanika and Anurag's [Kashyap] vision paid off after all," Taapsee adds.

As for the fraternity, she is happy to be finding attention from the bigwigs of the industry, what with everyone hailing her performance, the most recent one being Shabana Azmi no less.

"When you are appreciated by such stalwarts, you know that you are doing something right. You also know that the next one has to be even better. When Mulk released, so many out there said that it was my career best. Now with Manmarziyaan, they are saying that this is my career best. But then guess what, my career has just begun," announces Taapsee.

With Sujoy Ghosh's Badla (with Amitabh Bachchan) as her next release in March and a couple of more films in the pipeline, indeed Taapsee's career has just begun.