Taapsee Pannu on how she stopped being obsessed with cricket

Once upon a time, Taapsee Pannu, who will be see as cricketer Mithali Raj in her next release, Srijit Mukherjee’s Shabaash Mithu, was fervently fixated on cricket.

Recalling her childhood, Taapsee says, “I was an ardent cricket fan. I used to sit and pray between matches for India to win. My heartbeat rate depended on the way a match was going.”

So would she describe herself as an obsessive cricket fan? “Yes, I was an obsessive fan. I loved sports in general. But cricket was an obsession.”

That changed. “Honestly after I grew up when I got to know about match-fixing, that little girl who was obsessed with cricket was heartbroken. I know all the five fingers of a hand are not the same. But that seed of doubt about cricket was planted in my brain. After that my interest in sports broadened from just cricket to other games.”

2022 promises to be as crowded for Taapsee as 2021. “I still have a couple of films pending from last year that are to be released. So yes, you will see a lot of me this year as well.”

But from this year onwards Taapsee has slowed down her pace of work. “It is a very organic process because every year the stakes get higher. I keep pushing my boundaries and envelopes. The choices are automatically narrowed down. So if earlier I was doing 4-5 films a year, I will now be doing 3.”

Taapsee wants to look back at the end of every year to assess her progress. “At the end of each year I want to see if I’ve achieved the benchmarks I’ve set for myself, and how I can push them. Now that the disparity in the stakes between male and female actors are no more that steep, the challenges are different.”