Watch our #WoWDelhi celebrity of the year, Taapsee Pannu exclusively in conversation with N Mahalakshmi, Editor of the Outlook Business.
#TaapseePannu #NMahalakshmi #WOW2019 #Delhi #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
#TaapseePannu #NMahalakshmi #WOW2019 #Delhi #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
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00:00 And on that note ladies and gentlemen it is time for me to introduce to you to
00:05 someone very very special our Wow Delhi celebrity of the year. First off to do
00:13 the honors I'd like to invite on stage CEO Outlook Group Mr. Indranil Roy and
00:19 Miss N Mahalakshmi to once again please join me on stage to do the honors.
00:28 Thank you.
00:30 Alright so ladies and gentlemen she's one of the most talented and hard-working
00:42 actors we know who's really carved a niche for herself in Bollywood. From
00:48 action to romance I'd say she's been experimenting with a lot of roles and of
00:53 course she does it with great finesse and versatility. A perfect combination of
00:59 beauty with brains. She also happens to be a computer science engineer which is
01:06 the newest thing I've learned today. Of course she has this string of hits and
01:10 today she's not only making waves in Bollywood but she also continues to
01:15 charm audiences down south from where she really started her journey in 2010
01:21 with K Raghavendra Rao's Telugu movie Jumandi Nadam. I hope I said that
01:27 correctly. Ladies and gentlemen I can actually go on and on but I think it's
01:31 time for me to invite her on stage. Please put your hands together for our
01:35 Wow celebrity of the year Delhi Miss Tatsy Pannu.
01:41 [Music]
01:51 Also requesting, I'd also like to request Mr. Anil Kaushik, Head Lupin Life Care Consumer
02:00 Health Care to please join me on stage to do the honors.
02:04 [Music]
02:23 Okay so ladies and gentlemen I know you're busy taking pictures but honestly
02:28 if you ask me this moment requires a huge round of applause. So please free
02:32 your hands for the next 30 seconds.
02:35 [Music]
03:01 Okay I think we've got our best shot do we? Yes? All right Tatsy thank you so
03:07 much for joining us. Mr. Roy and Mr. Kaushal thank you. I'm gonna request you
03:11 to please stay with me on stage and I'm gonna request Miss N Mahalakshmi also
03:15 to stay with me because we're going to extend this ladies and gentlemen into a
03:20 wonderful conversation.
03:24 [Music]
03:40 Okay so the stage is set Tatsy. Please do take your seat. Mahalakshmi over to you.
03:46 [Music]
03:52 Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you so much and all of you
03:58 for being okay with the fact that I get this particular award in spite of the
04:04 fact that I honestly believe that I get this light edge only because of the
04:10 profession I am in and not just not because I am actually outsmarting the
04:16 other business women who were there on the stage today. So I actually feel
04:22 really awkward when I come to outside film kind of gathering and I get to meet
04:29 such brilliant women who have achieved so much. So it just feels like okay maybe
04:35 just I have an edge because of the job I am in but in no way I feel I'm anywhere
04:40 even near to kind of achievements the women on this particular stage have and
04:45 I hope all of you can also be a part of this platform, this stage, this accolade,
04:54 the covers because I feel you deserve it much more than I do.
04:59 Absolutely they are. There are a whole bunch of women entrepreneurs today who are
05:03 getting awards for their work for building large-sized businesses but my
05:12 question to you is had you not been an actress what would you have been? Your
05:18 path was pretty much laid out and for all the people who didn't know of course
05:22 Zinnia said that you were you did your computer engineering you had a pretty
05:27 good academic track record and you wanted to crack CAT and do an MBA
05:33 and you took a one-year gap to prepare for your CAT and look where you landed.
05:38 Yeah that is why they say that life is something that happens to you while
05:42 you're busy making plans so that's exactly what happened in my case. If I
05:47 would have followed my ambition I probably would have been a genuine all
05:55 business woman today and not an actor turned entrepreneur because I wanted to
06:02 do my MBA. I wanted to be a part of be a marketing professional and then
06:08 eventually get promoted to be someone to reckon with in business world but yes
06:14 this is what happened I wanted to give my CAT the second time because the first
06:19 time I got around 88 percentile which I thought I could do better with whatever
06:25 skills I thought I had I gave myself another year and this is what happened.
06:31 And you also had a job with Infosys. I was campus place I was campus place and
06:37 that was purely because I wanted to show it to my father that or my family and
06:42 everyone who thought that this is how a perfect life is when you get a campus
06:46 placement. Infosys was the first company that came and I got a placement in
06:51 Infosys and I had an appointment letter still sitting at home and it was just to
06:57 show that if I want that I can get a job it's just that I choose not to work at
07:01 that time. But what really swung the deal for you I mean what changed in that one
07:06 year? I think more importantly I think what I want to know is what was your
07:11 parents reaction? I mean you want to get into CAT, do an MBA, have a corporate
07:15 career or become a businesswoman and this is an entirely different path
07:20 altogether. Yeah I think they kind of my father kind of freaked out actually he
07:25 he didn't understand what happened to this girl who used to be this front
07:28 bencher scoring quite well never took part in any school play drama skit I
07:34 don't know what happened to her suddenly and he was almost scared that I'll stop
07:38 my education in between and won't even complete my B.Tech which kind of like
07:45 scared him and gave him sleepless nights literally until I finished my graduation
07:51 and with decent numbers and then he kind of like believed what I said and when I
07:57 asked him that please give me one year out of my own life and then if it
08:02 doesn't work out I'm anyway I'm gonna come back and give my CAT and we'll go
08:06 as per plan. Thank God he agreed for that one year because I told him this CAT can
08:12 happen again this profession might not give me a chance again and honestly I
08:17 really don't know what made me think I could do anything in it because I was
08:20 just exploring an opportunity one thing I give myself the credit of is the fact
08:25 that I never never gave up an opportunity thinking no this is not
08:30 something I can do I always made the best use of it but at the same time I
08:36 say my luck line is stronger than my lifeline in my hand and I was lucky
08:41 enough to get that opportunity but then I made sure I made full use of it.
08:45 Tell me you after your ad films and the initial brush you really got into South
08:52 cinema and there again you had a good initial success period and then a lean
08:59 patch was that any point then or thereafter that you wanted to take a
09:05 U-turn you said what have I got myself into was there any point at all? I did
09:11 and I sometimes honestly still do because there are times when you face
09:19 situations and go through moments or things that you end up feeling that
09:26 probably you are not cut out for this really because every profession has a
09:31 great side and not so great side to it and when you encounter that not so great
09:36 side then you end up feeling that maybe you are in a wrong profession or maybe
09:40 you don't know how to deal with it yeah that that happened multiple times but
09:44 you know that kind of was never a deterrent it never told me that okay
09:49 because you are not because you're not gonna do this job you are useless
09:53 because I always thought if not this I can do a lot a lot of a lot of other
09:59 things with my life not just acting I knew I could go back to engineering I
10:04 could do my MBA if not I'll start I'll probably start a startup which I
10:09 eventually did regardless of being an actor I knew I could still make a lot
10:13 out of my life if not an actor so I never felt that desperate and that you
10:20 know I like a lost soldier I always thought I can make a lot out of my life
10:25 if not acting that kind of kept me going regardless of all those bad moments and
10:32 how hard was it to really get into Bollywood because you didn't have any
10:36 connections when you got into Bollywood well again I would start this answering
10:42 this by saying yes my luck line is stronger than my lifeline and that does
10:47 really matter in Bollywood it really may helps you because you have to be at the
10:52 right place at the right time and that kind of helped me but yes it'll give you
10:56 an initial like initial kick but after that it's my real struggle started after
11:03 my first film because then there were expectations to live up to there were
11:07 things that were expected out of you as an actor off-camera and yeah and a lot
11:13 of other bigger struggles that I'm still going through which kind of make your
11:18 path more difficult when you are an outsider there have been so many times
11:22 that you just get replaced overnight because someone just made a call it is
11:28 so many times that you're not even in the running because there are so many
11:32 others who are recommended for a particular role yeah there are a lot of
11:37 these kind of things happen in the industry every now and then but then you
11:41 know I chose this path knowing all this exists knowing I will have a longer route
11:46 knowing I'll have more struggles and a lot of others out there but whatever
11:50 good or bad whatever I'm able to make for myself will be mine nobody can
11:55 tomorrow get up and say this is whatever wherever she is today is because of me
12:00 like someone else it'll all be my mind so I think I'm okay with having a slow
12:05 and steady path thank you one of the things that you have been very
12:13 particular about is to not repeat roles and not do similar roles how hard is
12:21 that for somebody for a budding actress to sort of say no to doing something
12:26 that is seen as befitting of your acting style in the beginning I'll be very
12:33 honest again in the beginning after I did Trashman but though I realized that
12:37 not many of such roles come my way I believe there are so many other girls in
12:43 the film industry who are far more beautiful and really good in doing those
12:47 kind of roles which are conventional heroine roles I never got those roles so
12:52 I had this this was the only path that I thought will help me make my either I
12:56 end up being just a mediocre person who was just doing anything and she's
13:00 replaceable or I choose this path where I make my way through I force people to
13:06 look at me and notice me by doing rules which are unconventional so I had to
13:11 choose this path and I think the more films I did the more opportunities I got
13:16 the more choices I had and today if I look at the lineup I had last year or
13:22 this year I had probably the maximum number of films releasing for any
13:26 female actor in the industry and all of them were different genres all of them
13:32 were different roles and that probably I could achieve because I had the courage
13:36 in the beginning to choose a path that is not conventional and I had the
13:40 courage to accept that okay it's okay to not to be a diva it's okay that I look
13:46 like an average girl I'm very very okay with it because I'm catering to an
13:52 average Indian audience in majority most of the people who go and buy movie
13:58 tickets and watch it are average Indian people so I'm okay representing them on
14:03 screen so a lot of acceptance of your own self reassurance of your own self
14:09 all that happened and then I could take that path what is your personal favorite
14:15 movie my own you don't choose from your children I have spent a lot of time and
14:23 effort in each and every film I've done regardless of the box-office result and
14:26 that time forget about the money but the time will never come back and I've spent
14:32 some really important years in each and every film I will never choose from them
14:38 most challenging one most challenging one okay that I can tell you it's
14:45 happening now actually right now I'm here and I'll go back to promoting
14:51 Badla that's releasing on Women's Day but then after that the same day I fly
14:58 to actually Delhi from Mumbai and then drive to Jori for one of the toughest
15:04 roles of my career I'm we are doing this biopic on shooter dadis like how
15:09 everybody knows them Chandru and Prakashi Tomar and I really don't know
15:14 what am I going to do in that film we've shot for nine days I'm taking one day at
15:18 a time I have nothing common with that character to build upon I usually find a
15:24 common thread and then build upon it I honestly have nothing common to build
15:28 upon that's the toughest challenge I've thrown at myself in years getting into
15:33 Bollywood was easier probably and I am trying to like wrap my head around it
15:38 and fight it out every single day one day at a time I know that I want to do
15:44 it I don't know how I'll do it but even now when I read the script I have a tear
15:48 in my eye how beautifully you know their story has been written so there's no way
15:54 I'm gonna give up but that's gonna be the toughest role of my career the
16:01 toughest role so far that's what I said it's gonna come out so far I don't know
16:07 I mean so far I have not really felt that this is more than that I have
16:12 probably encountered the same kind of difficulty in most of them but this kind
16:16 of takes the cake so like so easily like so it's such a huge margin that I cannot
16:22 even think of any other role that has been even close to this kind of
16:27 difficulty that with every role every successive role you feel this is no no
16:32 no I could have said that about the other films that I'm already discussing
16:36 or working on but this is the film that I really don't know like I remember last
16:42 year when well I had decided to do this film two years back but last year when I
16:47 was doing milk I always used to say it is the most critical film for me because
16:53 that was one film I did when everyone else didn't want me to do that film
16:57 including people really close to me people who take care of my work to a lot
17:03 of people I spoke to friends and all they didn't want me to do that film it
17:07 was only my instinct that was pushing me that I have to do it come what may
17:12 maximum what will happen it will fail it will flop but at least people will
17:16 remember me for trying something that was challenging and difficult so the
17:20 same way I want to I want to look forward to Sankhya which is extremely
17:26 challenging for me I've seen the interview that reporters did you said
17:32 you don't want to be a social climber what did you mean I'm very scared of
17:38 that so I'll tell you where did it come from when I migrated from South Cinema
17:45 to Bollywood there were social dues something similar to this I used to go
17:51 in a tent and I was almost a dozen films down when I started working in Hindi
17:58 film industry and the way they used to receive me and put me like in some
18:04 little faraway corner whereas a lot of my contemporaries used to take the
18:10 center stage sometimes I could convince myself it's okay you know they don't
18:16 know what I have done or how much work I have done I'm not saying I've done some
18:20 mind-blowing path-breaking stuff but if but nor have a lot of others who were
18:26 sitting there honestly but but I thought that I probably deserved a little better
18:30 because of because work is work making films is making films just because it
18:35 was not in the same language it was not respected enough and that was not going
18:41 down well with me so I decided not to attend all these big public social dues
18:46 for a while and then come back when probably people know me a little better
18:50 and I did after a few years when things became better when people knew about
18:56 what I could do but yeah in between I could see a lot of people trying to just
19:00 be spotted around the names and just be clicked around there and then people
19:05 talking behind their back as how they are the social climbers because that's
19:09 why they are attending all these dues to be clicked around so that kind of really
19:13 scared me I didn't want to put down the efforts and the hard work that I've done
19:18 for years to it to be where I am by just this one statement said by someone that
19:22 she's a social climber I cannot socialize with an agenda which I cannot
19:28 till date because of which I am I'm not really a part of any group or camp or
19:32 clan or whatever they call it I know I do lose out on a lot of films even now
19:37 because I don't socialize really with that agenda which is okay I am I thought
19:43 I can talk a lot as you all can witness right now I can socialize really well
19:48 but not with an agenda tell me there is a lot of hue and cry around pay gap in
19:57 Bollywood what are your thoughts okay so maybe it will go probably not in the
20:03 direction that you all expect me to say but I'll be again very honest and very
20:08 practical because I do think as an entrepreneur as well so business of
20:15 film filmmaking is a business it's show business your remuneration according to
20:20 me should be proportional to the kind of guaranteed footfalls that you can get
20:27 for your film an X star can guarantee a Y amount of opening for a film
20:35 regardless of what genre how good or bad the film is just because X is doing a
20:41 film so many people are ready to bet their money on that film and watch it so
20:47 if I want to demand a certain amount of money for a film which is equivalent to
20:54 that X star I should be able to give that Y opening for my films then it's
21:01 fair enough otherwise I'm just for the sake of pay parity issue I am actually
21:08 making my producers suffer which will end up making him lose a lot of money
21:13 and he'll never be able to make a film again at least not with me for sure so I
21:18 don't want that to happen why do you say that because if I'm charging way too
21:23 much than what I can actually pull into theater then it's unfair well every film
21:29 if their true success starts on a Monday if they're actually good or no but
21:34 weekend is mostly star driven how popular you are how much people want to
21:39 see you regardless of the film weekend is more or less a judge of that if my
21:45 weekend collection when I am the only so-called star in the film is in
21:51 comparison to my male counterparts then hundred percent I'll ask for same amount
21:56 of money but if not then I feel it's unfair to the producer just one last
22:03 question you're a Delhi girl is there a quick fix to make Delhi safe for women
22:09 well if I had that I would have made sure by hook or by crook by hook or by crook I
22:16 would have made sure that happened it just feels so sad today morning itself I
22:22 was looking out of the window from my hotel and I was looking at the street
22:27 and I was just like it's such a beautiful city just filled with some
22:32 insane amount of rapists it just it just pricks me at that wrong place every time
22:39 I love my city so much obviously in Bombay Mumbai when I go there I am the
22:44 person standing there for my city defending my city but this one argument
22:48 I cannot defend and yeah I don't know what to do about it I just can hope and
22:55 pray it gets better sure thank you so much it was a pleasure thank you so much
23:00 everyone for listening to me thank you
23:04 okay well ladies and gentlemen can we have a huge round of applause for the
23:11 absolutely one and only and Tapsi I'm an opportunist but other than that other
23:18 than that yes other we should all be right other than that the fact is that
23:22 we're in a room full of women of worth and I know you cannot physically take a
23:26 selfie with everyone but everyone would want one with you so let's take like a
23:31 groupie with all of the women of worth in the room yeah okay let's go for it
23:36 guys give us your best smiles yeah we'll tag it on Wow 2019 and you can
23:41 find yourself okay let's go
23:47 you
23:49 you
23:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]