Taapsee Pannu fires up 'Rashmi Rocket'

One of Bollywood’s brightest young stars, Taapsee Pannu, who impressed us with hard-hitting and women-centric films like Thappad and Pink, has taken on yet another challenging role, that of an athlete — Rashmi Vira — from Kutch, India, who is blessed with incredible speed as a runner. However, the journey to fulfill her dreams is not without hurdles, and she ends up fighting a personal battle for respect, honour and identity.

Rashmi Rocket is a film that tackles some important issues of gender and identity in the field of sports which perhaps as audience members we rarely or never get to see.

It’s yet another feather in the cap for Taapsee, who went through some rigorous training and was put on a strict diet and fitness regime to play the role of Rashmi, a process she called “exhausting, both mentally and physically”.

Directed by Akarsh Khurana and made in collaboration with Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP and Mango People Media, Rashmi Rocket also stars Priyanshu Painyuli as Rashmi’s husband, and Abhishek Banerjee who plays the lawyer fighting her case when she is banned from competing due to high testosterone levels.

In a Zoom interaction, Taapsee told us more about filming Rashmi Rocket, the intense preparation that went into her role and what she hopes the audience takes away from the film.

Rashmi Rocket is a sports drama with a difference in that it challenges stereotypes and gender testing in the system. What was it about the script that first attracted you and were you hesitant in any way before taking on this rather groundbreaking role?

What attracted me to Rashmi Rocket was that it’s a sports-based issue that I was not aware of and was very shocked about, because I love sports and I believed that I knew quite a bit. But when it comes to this, I did not know enough.

So that’s why I wanted to be the medium through which the audience can actually get to know this part of sports, which is extremely gender biased I feel, when it comes to gender testing.

That became a major reason for me to do the film and the only thing I was hesitant about was whether I would be able to look like an athlete who has extra testosterone levels in the body. Nothing else.

It’s a very hard-hitting tale that could happen to anyone who is an aspiring athlete. In preparing for this role, what are the moments that stood out and what was the most challenging aspect?

I think every day after the training was done, I used to thank my stars that I was only doing it for the film, and I’m not an athlete in real life, because it was just so exhausting!

It was exhausting both physically and mentally — physically, of course, because it requires that kind of training, mentally because you really don’t know how your muscles are going to react, and if they are not giving 100 per cent, what do you do to make them give 100 per cent. You think about the kind of injuries that happen, and the fear of injuries that can happen; the timing of going up and down every day plays in your head.

It’s very exhausting to be in the shoes of an athlete, so it was definitely not the most comfortable role to do. Probably the toughest, actually.

Was preparing for the role eye-opening in many ways? What did you learn from this entire experience?

It was eye-opening to see that side of an athlete. You only see it as an audience — how they win accolades. The story is very different when you are on the other side.

Rashmi Rocket releases October 15 on ZEE5 Global.