Speaking to PTI, Taapsee Pannu said that there is an audience for female-driven films in today's cinema. Her two movies, "Mission Mangal" and "Saand Ki Aankh" is all set to be released this year.
Mumbai: In an industry where a male actor is called a hero, Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu claimed that she aims to break gender-based stereotypes and is planning to prove it steadily.
The 31-year-old actor believes the acceptance for female-centric films from both the industry and the audience could help bridge the gap between male and female actors being successful at the box office.
"I feel a hero has no gender, and I am trying to prove that. We have for so many years fed our audience that hero is a gender-based term, and they have also accepted that.
"Now, change cannot come overnight. It will be slow and steady. It requires a lot of perseverance from the side of all-female actors who are trying to bring change," Taapsee was quoted saying in a PTI report.
Citing the example of her recently released film "Game Over", Taapsee said that the home invasion thriller did not make it to the Rs 100 crore club, and it is a fact she accepts.
"I am expecting and hoping that it will become a commercially successful film so that other people will take a risk in the future," she added.
Taapsee's last two releases "Badla" (over Rs 100 crore in India) and "Game Over" (Rs 11 crore in India) were fronted by a woman protagonist, and the actor believes that there is an audience for female-driven cinema today.
"We are in the transition phase. All kinds of good films in this space are being accepted. Like 'Game Over' was a dark film, it did not have a regular entertainment quotient like a song or a comedy scene or anything. It is not visually that easily an attractive movie, but it got a good response. Such films require a certain kind of trust from the audience."
There is a perception that usually mainstream potboilers with A-listers tend to be a crowd-puller to the theatres, but the actor believes it isn't necessary to choose only commercial films.
"I am not giving up easily and not succumbing to this pressure that I have to do a certain kind of films to make sure I am saleable. I am ready to push the boundary slowly and steadily as in every way possible," the Bollywood actor said.
Taapsee's other two releases this year are "Mission Mangal" and "Saand Ki Aankh". The actor is also working on a Tamil action thriller.
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