Shoojit:Taapsee unpolluted by stardom culture of Bollywood

| PTI | Feb 9, 2017, 17:38 IST

Having worked with her in two of his home productions, filmmaker ... Read More

Having worked with her in two of his home productions, filmmaker

Shoojit

Sircar lauds Taapsee Pannu's ability to stay away from the lure of stardom in Bollywood.

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Though Taapsee made her Bollywood debut in 2013 with 'Chashme Baddoor' and went on to work in 'Baby', it was last year's 'Pink' which brought the 29-year-old actress widespread acclaim. Shoojit, who backed the social drama, feels Taapsee has managed to stay afloat without sinking in to the pressure of stardom.

"Taapsee is so

unpolluted

yet, by the whole stardom culture of Bollywood. She is not in that race at all. It is a big struggle to keep away from it, to not let the pressure come to you. She has that in her," Shoojit told .

The filmmaker has also produced 'Running Shaadi.com', which stars Taapsee in the lead role. Shoojit says it was her performance in the upcoming Amit Roy directed romantic-comedy which helped her bag a role in 'Pink'.

"You see the potential in something and then you decide on the next one. I am not going for a face. I looked at her talent and I was blown away." "Running Shaadi.com is Taapsee Pannu. She is the film. You actually desire that in every frame she is there. She sets the screen on fire. The day Amit showed me a small clip I was sold out. She was so nice."

Roy, who is making his directorial debut with the film, says both Taapsee and her co-star Amit Sadh were 'thorough professionals' who used to have several brainstorming sessions with the team. "Everyday, Taapsee, Amit, our writer Navjot Gulati and I used to rehearse. We worked a lot and improvised with them. Taapsee and Amit brought a lot of dialogues to the film."

"We would record it and then add those in the script. Finally what we shot, it comes from all the actors. They brought in their life, observations," the

director

said. 'Running Shaadi.com'is scheduled for February 17 release.

00:48

Directors confess to their biggest goof-ups

MAINAK BHAUMICK: Ami Aar Amar Girlfriends was a series of goof-ups! Having finally written a chick flick, I went wild, forgetting that I was on a schedule or that there could be production issues.Our beach shoot, in which the three girls go out on a little trip, saw the worst goof-up. We reached the spot the earlier night and the entire team was in holiday mode! We started shooting the next morning, with the girls running around. On one end was Swastika (Mukherjee) on her own and on the other, it was Raima (Sen) and Parno (Mittra) on their own trip, refusing to get out of the water, shoot or no shoot. We had already taken a few shots with the girls playing in the water when suddenly, my DoP Gopi Bhagat and I planned to take the camera deeper into the sea. Not for a second did I think about into the sea. Not for a second did I think about the waves and before we knew it, Gopi took the plunge and the camera conked out.For four hours, we just sat idle and I was still short of a good 10 shots! Imagine the scene: a damaged camera, a sitting team, me pulling my hair out and the girlfriends still refusing to get out of the water! End result: Aami Aar Amar Girlfriends!

AGNIDEV CHATTERJEE: I was recently in Turkey, shooting the climax and three songs of Tere Aane Se. We have been shooting the film for a year now, and everyone appeared tired when they landed in Istanbul and took a flight to Antalya. The first day's shoot was at the Temple of Apollo in a place called Side. During the shoot, the temperature rose to 46°C. There wasn't even an iota of shade and our sunglasses were the only protection. Hearing all the fuss about getting tanned, my DoP Kabir Lal laughed and said, “I can't get any darker than this, can I?" During lunch at a nearby restaurant, everyone removed their shades and a laughter riot ensued. Every face was tanned, barring the areas protected by the sunglasses and the unit members couldn't help laughing at each other. When we were returning to Istanbul after the shoot, I saw the Turkish crew's skin peeling off. They saw at my worried face and told me to relax, and that it was no big deal. Such was their dedication. And the Indian crew? Well, on the way back to India, I could see that the immigration officer was having a hard time identifying me, as he was looking at the untanned photograph on my passport.

RAJIB: Goof-ups have become part and parcel of my shooting schedule. I started shooting for Bindass last June and had to keep cancelling one particular shot of Dev running through a paddy field because the moment we got ready to take the shot, heavy rain would start! And trust me, this happened 25 days in a row! I have realized that the rain god loves me, as even during the shooting of Idiot, it rained for the entire 42-day schedule. For the first few days, we used to panic, but later, it was like a part of the shoot. The best goof-up, however, was during the shoot of Khoka 420 at the Haldia rajbari! A mela was set up in front of the rajbari to let people have a glimpse of Dev. Dev had to come out to the balcony every two hours daily to wave at the crowd! One day, it slipped my mind while shooting a difficult scene with Dev and suddenly, I heard 10,000 12,000 people screaming outside the gate, threatening to stop the shoot if they didn't get a glimpse of Dev! The whole shoot got cancelled that day. Even the shots we took weren't good, as there was too much noise in the background.

ANIRUDDHA ROY CHOWDHURY: It was the last day of Antaheen's shoot. We had to take a shot of Rahul Bose lying down on a rainy day to create the drama. It was around midnight, but we had to take that shot, as Rahul had to fly abroad the next day and that particular shot was essential to create that extra magic.And as luck would have it, the rain machine refused to work. The shift was getting doubled and still, the electricians and plumber in our team could not figure out what had gone wrong. But I refused to compromise on the shot and decided with my DoP Avik Mukhopadhyay that we will take the shot in a different way. We got a big piece of glass and took the water spray from my makeup artist to spray water on it.The camera panned slowly on a trolley and the shot came out brilliantly. In the film, one can see Rahul lying down and looking out of the window, with water droplets running down the glass. The shot was very poetic and added drama to the scene. So, the biggest goof-up of the day ended as a blessing! I realized that I'm at my creative best when pushed to the edge!

RAJA CHANDA: Given all the goof-ups I faced during shooting, I must have aged by two-three years! The most recent experience was during the shooting of Bachchan. Payel Sarkar, who plays a pivotal role in the film, had to ride a scooty. Since she is extremely diligent, Payal reported at 6 am on the day of the shoot just to practice, though the call time was 8 am. But during the final take, she fell, broke her right hand and the scooty and the portions of the shoot involving her got postponed by 21 days. Then again, there was the time when we went to Bangkok with Joy to shoot two songs of Target. Joy, who was supposed to sport a stubble, came to the floors on the second day clean shaven! His mistake meant that the continuity of the songs were at stake. I was furious, but the makeup artist saved him. He re-creat ed the same stubble and did a fantastic job. Again, during the shoot of Rangbaaz with Dev and Koel, we had this shot where both of them had to jet-ski away to an island. After the shot, they were being shifted to a boat when they fell into the sea! Luckily, there were people to save them!

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