Taapsee Pannu

Taapsee Pannu
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Born	Taapsee Pannu (1987-08-01) 1 August 1987 New Delhi, India
Occupation	Actress, model
Years active	2010–present
Website	www.taapsee.me

Taapsee Pannu (born 1 August 1987) is an Indian model and actress, who mainly works in the South Indian film industry, though she has also appeared in Bollywood films. Taapsee worked as a software professional and also pursued a career in modelling before becoming an actress. During her modelling career, she appeared in a number of commercials and won titles such as "Pantaloons Femina Miss Fresh Face" and "Safi Femina Miss Beautiful Skin" in 2008.

After a short stint with modelling, Taapsee made her acting debut with the 2010 Telugu film Jhummandi Naadam directed by Raghavendra Rao. Since then, she has appeared in a number of critically acclaimed films such as Aadukalam, Vastadu Naa Raju and Mr. Perfect. Her Tamil film Aadukalam won six National Film Awards at the 58th National Film Awards. She has also worked in a Malayalam film and has been signed on for three Telugu films and a Hindi film. She was awarded Most Enthusiastic Performer-Female Award at the 2014 Edison Awards for her performance in Tamil film Arrambam (2013). In 2015, she starred in the critically and commercially successful film Baby.

Early life and modeling

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Taapsee at the launch of Malabar's New Jewellery Range, 2011

Taapsee was born on 1 August 1987 in New Delhi into a Jat Sikh family. She has a sister named Shagun Pannu and plans to launch her into films as well. She did her schooling at the Mata Jai Kaur Public School in Ashok Vihar, Delhi. After completing her graduation in Computer Science Engineering from the Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology in New Delhi, she worked as a software engineer. She became a full-time model after she auditioned and was selected for Channel V's talent show Get Gorgeous, which eventually led her to acting. Taapsee has appeared in numerous print and television commercials and won several titles during her modelling days, including "Pantaloons Femina Miss Fresh Face" and "Safi Femina Miss Beautiful Skin" at the 2008 Femina Miss India contest. As a model, she endorsed brands like Reliance Trends, Red FM 93.5, UniStyle Image, Coca-Cola, Motorola, Pantaloon, PVR Cinemas, Standard Chartered Bank, Dabur, Airtel, Tata Docomo, World Gold Council, Havells and Vardhman. She has also been featured on the cover of magazines Just For Women and MaaStars. After a few years, she lost interest in modelling as she thought that she could never gain proper recognition through modelling but only through films and finally, decided to act.

2010–2015: Debut in films

"Initially, I wanted to be a full-time model and never thought I could act. As time went by, modelling became not that exciting or enjoyable as posing in front of the camera became monotonous. Also, I felt my name was not being highlighted. The name gets highlighted only in films. So I wanted to act."

—Taapsee talking about how she got into films

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Taapsee Pannu with Pakistani actor Ali Zafar at the audio release of Chashme Baddoor in 2013

Taapsee made her cinematic debut in 2010 with K. Raghavendra Rao's romantic musical Jhummandi Naadam. She played the role of the daughter of a US-based millionaire who comes to India to research traditional Telugu music. Taapsee got three more offers in Telugu prior to the film's release. Her next film Aadukalam (2011), marked her debut in Tamil cinema. She played the role of an Anglo-Indian girl falling in love with a rural man played by Dhanush. The film, set in the backdrop of Madurai, revolves around cockfights. It was critically acclaimed and proceeded to win six National Film Awards at the 58th National Film Awards ceremony. Speaking about her role, a reviewer from Sify said, "Debutant Taapsee is a promising find and she suits the character of an Anglo-Indian girl to the T." She returned to the Telugu film industry with Vastadu Naa Raju (2011) opposite Vishnu Manchu. She made a foray into Malayalam cinema later that year, with Doubles (2011) opposite Mammootty and Nadiya Moidu. Paresh C Palicha of Rediff commented, "Taapsee Pannu as Saira Banu, whose entry into the scene becomes the bone of contention between the siblings, has nothing noteworthy to do".

Taapsee played a short role in her next release, Mr. Perfect (2011). In it, she acted alongside Prabhas and Kajal Aggarwal and the film was a moderate success. She starred in a high budget film titled Veera (2011) opposite Ravi Teja and Kajal Aggarwal, which received moderate reviews. She was next seen in her second Tamil film Vandhaan Vendraan that fetched mixed reviews and did not fare well at the box office. Her next film was Krishna Vamsi's Mogudu where she acted as a traditional Telugu girl opposite Gopichand and garnered critical acclaim for her performance. She worked on the Tamil–Telugu bilingual Gundello Godari—titled Maranthen Mannithen in Tamil— apart from Daruvu and Shadow. She also made her Bollywood debut through Chashme Baddoor where she shares the screen with Siddharth, Rishi Kapoor, Divyendu Sharma and Ali Zafar. The film is a remake of the 1981 film with the same title. Taapsee was also approached to dub the voice of Hollywood actress Katee Sackhoff in the Tamil, Telugu and Hindi versions of the science fiction film Riddick, but declined the offer due to her prior commitments. In later 2013, she was seen in the big budget action thriller Arrambam co-starring Ajith Kumar and Arya. She was awarded Most Enthusiastic Performer-Female Award at the 2014 Edison Awards for her performance in the film.

After a year without releases, she starred opposite Akshay Kumar in Neeraj Pandey's film Baby (2015), as an undercover agent. Later, she had two Tamil releases, the horror comedy Muni 3 opposite Raghava Lawrence and Aishwarya R. Dhanush's Vai Raja Vai, which featured her in special appearance. Her upcoming films include the Hindi films Running Shaadi.com alongside Amit Sadh, and Agra Ka Daabraa by Amit Roy and a Tamil film to be directed by Selvaraghavan.

2016-present

After finishing Baby, Taapsee joined Shoojit Sircar's next film, titled Pink, and the bilingual submarine film Ghazi, to be directed by debutant Sankalp. She is also working in Prakash Raj’s Hindi directorial debut Tadka Which also stars Shriya Saran, Nana Patekar and Ali Fazal.

Personal life

When asked in January 2015 about her personal relationships, Taapsee said, "I have dated a South Indian. Also I have never dated a star and will never date one and that I can write and give you on a stamp paper. I am clear that there can be only one star in the relationship and that's me. I personally don't think it can work out between an actor and an actress."

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Language	Notes
2010	Jhummandi Naadam	Sravya	Telugu
2011	Aadukalam	Irene Claude	Tamil	Nominated—Vijay Award for Favourite Heroine Nominated—Vijay Award for Best Debut Actress
2011	Vastadu Naa Raju	Pooja	Telugu
2011	Mr. Perfect	Maggie	Telugu	Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress – Telugu
2011	Veera	Aiki	Telugu
2011	Vandhaan Vendraan	Anjana	Tamil
2011	Mogudu	Raja Rajeshwari	Telugu
2011	Doubles	Saira Banu	Malayalam
2012	Daruvu	Swetha	Telugu
2013	Gundello Godari	Sarala	Telugu	Simultaneously made and released in Tamil as Maranthen Mannithen
2013	Chashme Baddoor	Seema	Hindi
2013	Shadow	Madhubala	Telugu
2013	Sahasam	Sreenidhi	Telugu
2013	Arrambam	Anitha	Tamil	Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress – Tamil
2015	Baby	Priya	Hindi
2015	Kanchana 2	Nandhini	Tamil
2015	Vai Raja Vai	Shreya	Tamil
2015	Dongaata	Herself	Telugu	Special appearance
2015	Runningshaadi.com	Nimmi	Hindi	Post-production
2015	Kaan		Tamil	Delayed
2015	Agra Ka Daabra		Hindi	Pre-production
2016	Pink		Hindi	Filming
2016	Ghazi		Hindi Telugu	Filming
2016	Tadka	Nicole	Hindi	Filming

See also

• List of Indian film actresses

External links

• Official website
• Taapsee Pannu at the Internet Movie Database

• Taapsee Pannu’s back. The Hindu (4 April 2015). Retrieved on 25 August 2015.
• Trisha, Taapsee to work in Selvaraghavan's next. Hindustantimes.com (29 April 2015). Retrieved on 25 August 2015.
• Taapsee Pannu: I have dated a South Indian but can never date a Sikh. timesofindia.com Retrieved on 02 December 2015.