Mumbai: Actor Taapsee Pannu, who plays the role of a sprinter in her upcoming film Rashmi Rocket, on Thursday said her film is her way of questioning the patriarchal notions about what's feminine and what's not. Set in Kutch, Gujarat, the sports drama stars Pannu in the title role of a gifted athlete and is directed by Akarsh Khurana, who has made Irrfan Khan's Karwaan.
The trailer of the film shows Rashmi (Pannu) being subjected to archaic gender testing that is performed on female athletes and how she faces discrimination for not being conventionally feminine. Recently, a user on Twitter commented on Pannu's physique as a manly after she posted a picture from the film. Pannu said the comment validated her efforts as these are the boxes that she wants to shatter through the film.
"Who defines what's feminine and what is not? Is it just about your muscular build that you will be judged on who is a female and who is not? Do you realize that there are some hormonal imbalances that are there in certain females by default, it is not their choice? It might be a result of that they end up having the kind of physique that they have," the 34-year-old actor said during the virtual press conference of the film's trailer launch.
The actor said she may have taken the comment as a "compliment" because she worked extra hard to build a certain physique for the film, but it would be heartbreaking for someone going through a hormonal imbalance to hear that.
"It is their (athletes') job to make that kind of body. That's what they are supposed to do, build their body strong enough... Are we really asking these women to change their genetics to fit into the definition of what a female should be? Who gave you the right?" she added. "It was a big compliment (Twitter comment) because it validated my hard work that I had put in for the film. I had to work double hard to get this kind of physique to get into the character of Rashmi," said Taapsee.
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The film is written by Nanda Periyasamy, Aniruddha Guha and Kanika Dhillon. Khurana said the team paid utmost attention to doing research on gender testing in sports, which is central to the film's conflict. When you go back to the history in the 30s, it is actually done by imposters men pretending to be women in sports they are pretending to be women. That's a different thing. It was a fraud.
"But then the lines got blurred and it became like a norm and no one bothered to question the ethics of it. Then it became something so discriminatory. That is the debate that the film is about. The most important freedom is to be who you want to be, he said.
Priyanshu Painyuli, best known for the Amazon Prime Video web series Mirzapur, plays Pannu's love interest in the film. He also spoke about gender testing of female athletes as "unfair."
Pannu said this was the story that she chose to do as she wanted to highlight the struggles that women athletes face in the country. "Everyone was just so sure about the story from day 1 that it was never a tough job to convince any of the stakeholders to join hands and give their best for this film. Hence the result of this film will affect me a lot more than my other films. Also, I'm extremely proud of it."
Rashmi Rocket also stars Supriya Pathak and Supriya Pilgaonkar. The film is backed by producer Ronnie Screwvala's banner RSVP, along with Neha Anand and Pranjal Khandhdiya. The film is set to be released on ZEE5 on October 15.
