‘Audience validation-connect for my screen-performances, matters to me most,’ says Taapsee Pannu whose ‘Shabaash Mithu’ releases on July 15

Charismatic Taapsee Pannu (of ‘Thappad’ movie fame) known for her brilliant acting skills in versatile screen-roles. Which includes her latest role as iconic Indian female cricketer Mithali Dorai Raj in ‘Shabaash Mithu’,does not wish to take any more movie projects where she has to play athletic or sports characters - Chaitanya Padukone

Explains outspoken Taapsee, “ Yes, it’s true that I genuinely love sports and have a fetish for fitness. It has taken a mental toll on me. But this time, I am planning to take a break from signing any more sports-centric roles.

After going thru the demanding regimen of intense cricket-batsman training, I am now feeling more like an athlete instead of an actress,. The training and preparation has also taken a mental toll on me. That’s why I need this break,” she justifies..

What were the major challenges faced by ‘Mission Mangal’ girl Taapsee in the preparation for the role of the-highest-run-scorer-female-cricketer Mithali Raj ?

“Honestly speaking, during my growing years, I never even held a cricket-bat at the pitch., Even when I played gully-cricket sometimes, I was asked to do mostly only the ‘fielding’.

For someone hardly knowing the game of cricket, it was rather a tough task . Also possibly a heavy price to pay for me to step into the shoes of a international lady cricket-legend like Mithali .

Secondly, personality-nature-wise Mithali is very unlike me and opposite to my nature. . She is quite cool and laid-back, very quiet and reserved ,does not emote much and is not an expressive person like me.

Thirdly, there was not much of reference-footage available for the initial phase of her cricketing-career. We also had to get personal inputs from her associates and cricket-colleagues, “ confides Taapsee, who by now is familiar with executing batting-shots like ‘square-cut’ and ‘cover-drive’.

For those who are not cricket-crazy, what was the entertainment-quotient and social message in ‘Shabaash Mithu’ ?

Clarifies the ‘Manmarziyaan’ girl Taapsee, “ Actually the cricket footage is minimum. Only the major milestone cricket matches, the victories, the record-breaking highlights are mostly there in the bio-pic movie.

There is more of engaging intense drama and even ‘dark-humour’ as to what went ‘beyond-the cricket-field’, the family sentiments, the heavy social odds. Of course there are no fictional-romantic songs and no personal struggle in terms of poverty or lack of parental support..

But then the ‘under-dog’ recap-success-story of overcoming the ’anonymity’ odds and the gritty-feisty dedication-diligence of woman-empowerment that makes one an iconic-achiever, is highly relatable for the movie-goers masses,’ shares actress-model Pannu who reveals that she is a very good ‘badminton-player’, In fact, film-producer’ Taapsee owns a badminton franchise “Pune 7 Aces” which plays in the Premier Badminton League (PBL)

Even as the articulate, candid actress Taapsee ( of OTT hit movie ‘Haseen Dilruba’ fame) is awaiting the release of Shabaash Mithu, she is equally excited about her upcoming co-production — horror-thriller Blurr opposite Gulshan Devaiah, and the all-women road-trip movie, Dhak Dhak which is also co-produced by her.

Then of course there is a different love-story movie ‘Dunki’ directed by hit-machine Raj Kumar Hirani where she is paired opposite Shah Rukh Khan

“Audience validation-connect for my screen-performances, matters to me most,” signs off Taapsee Pannu, whose ‘Shabaash Mithu’ directed by Srijit Mukherji and produced by Viacom18 Studios releases on July 15.