Mumbai: Long before her debut in the Hindi films, when Taapsee Pannu danced in a college competition which Anurag Kashyap judged, she was just ‘a girl in the corner’. Today, the actor headlines his projects and the filmmaker says he has found a great friend in her.
“She went to my college for a month. I picked up the choreographer from that song sequence to do choreography in ‘Dev D’ and she told me the girl in the corner dancing on stage was her. I had no clue,” Anurag said during an interview with this agency.
Anurag and Taapsee have worked in just one film, ‘Manmarziyaan’, but the duo has found much more than a creative collaboration. “I’ve found a great friend in her and I don’t say that about a lot of people,” asserted the director.
Anurag pointed out that unlike his long time friend and collaborator Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who has ‘grown’ with him, he did not know much about Taapsee.
“We just met twice before we started shooting ‘Manmarziyaan’. While shooting the film we got into so many fights. But I’ve found this amazing friend who I don’t have to second guess. What she says is what she means. I don’t have to think twice making fun of her. I just am and she just is. We are extremely comfortable,” informed Anurag.
The ‘Sacred Games’ director says both of them relate to each other’s journey and struggles.
“We identify with each other as being from the outside world who have their own minds, we agree to disagree and we have faced similar struggles,” stated Anurag.
He said that in Taapsee, he has found a person he can count on. “Sometimes when I’m feeling down, I’ll call her—no matter which part of the world she’s shooting in—and ask if anyone’s at home as I just want to sit at her place and cut off from the world and she says ‘yes please go ahead’,” Anurag confessed.
“She thinks she can make me feel much lighter, change my perception of being a dark filmmaker and I also indulge her. We have these fights and battles but in her, I’ve found a friend who I can count on,” added the filmmaker.
Anurag has come on board to present the Hindi version of Taapsee’s next, ‘Game Over’, a Tamil/Telugu bilingual drama directed by Ashwin Saravanan. The thriller chronicles the story of a wheelchair-bound woman dealing with a mysterious identity trying to invade her home.
Written by Saravanan and Kaavya Ramkumar, ‘Game Over’ will release June 14.
PTI