Bollywood Hungama

EXCLUSIVE: After Gandhari success, Taapsee Pannu reveals whats next with Kanika Dhillon: Take bigger risks

Three successful Netflix collaborations have now strengthened the creative partnership between Taapsee Pannu and writer Kanika Dhillon, and the success of Gandhari appears to have given the duo even greater confidence to step outside conventional storytelling. Taapsee believes a major reason their collaboration works is Dhillons understanding of what keeps streaming audiences engaged. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, the actor explained that OTT storytelling comes with its own unique challenge, viewers can simply stop watching or press pause whenever their attention begins to drift. I believe Kanika has kind of figured out the knack of how to keep the OTT audiences engaged, Taapsee said. According to her, the viewing environment itself makes retaining an audience particularly challenging. Because OTT kind of you are fighting against that pause button that can happen any time, it is unlike theatre experience where you participate and you sit in that dark room, your full focus is on the screen, she explained. That understanding has become an important part of Taapsees creative equation with Dhillon. The actor says she trusts the writer to understand how to carry a story through to the end, while her own responsibility is to translate what is on the page into a performance that feels organic. All I do is kind of like take that leap of faith with her, trust that, you know, she knows how to take the film till the end in the most the best possible way and have to just believe in her, Taapsee said. The success of Gandhari has now made that partnership even more ambitious. Rather than simply attempting to recreate what has worked before, Taapsee wants their next collaboration to challenge expectations once again. Here definitely it is a big confidence boost for Kanika and me to collaborate again together to now this time, you know try to push the envelope even more to take bigger risks to kind of present something new yet another time, bend the genre at yet another time, she revealed. Taapsee believes their willingness to avoid established formulas may actually be central to their partnership. We might not fit any kind of typical framework because there is no rules that we abide by with the films that we do, she said. With Gandhari adding another successful chapter to their collaboration, Taapsee and Dhillon now appear ready to take that unconventional approach even further. Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Why Kanika Dhillon keeps breaking genre rules: It really excites me to break the mould