Taapsee Pannu And Raveena Tandon Express Their Fear Of Working With Confused Directors

Taapsee Pannu and Raveena Tandon recently graced the Actors' Roundtable 2021 which was hosted by former film critic and journalist Rajeev Masand. During the conversation, the two leading ladies spoke about their biggest fear as actors.

Taapsee and Raveena said that they are scared of working with 'confused' filmmakers as it's the actors who end up facing the brunt of bad reviews. They said that audience judges the actors for how they approach their characters, whereas they are only following the filmmaker's direction.

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Raveena said during the discussion, "There are times when the director's confused. Achha aise nahi, chalo aise try karte hai (Not this, let's try something else). But we can't do that sir, because this is the attitude that's needed. Then at that time, you are conflicted in your mind that what does he really want from the character. Does he want it this way or does he want it that way? And then it becomes little bit of a muddle, mess."

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On being asked if conversations take place about how to play a character on screen before the shoot, Taapsee revealed, "They do, but on set, it suddenly abruptly changes. This has happened at times that we have discussed and thought that 'ok, this should be the approach of the character' and then you reach the set and (told to) react like that (in a different way). But then I say that 'it's not in line with the discussion that we had before'. (The director says), 'no, in this situation just react, just do as I say'. This scares me. You have to at least tell me so that I know the graph in my head -- where I start, where I am ending, what's my next shot. Where do I pick up the emotion of the next shot? You can't just say 'Ye bhi karlo, wo bhi karlo, jo better hoga wo dekhlenge' (do this, do this as well, we will take the better shot). This scares me."

Raveena also echoed the same sentiment and said that ultimately it's the actors who have to bear the consequences of confused director. She said, "In the end, its the brunt that the actor's face. Because when the reviews come out, it's like 'Oh, she didn't do it that way'. Dude, I was told to do it this way."

Taapsee also explained how editing a scene can sometimes change the essence of the actor's performance. "Sometimes they edit. There is a transition shot that we have given and it is picked off in edit because of the length or whatever. I am like, 'How will I make sense, I am in this emotion and now suddenly I am in this emotion'. There was a transition shot but they say 'no it was not needed'. I look bad as an actor because I couldn't show the emotion," the actress explained during the conversation.

With regards to work, Taapsee was last seen in Rashmi Rocket. On the other hand, Raveena recently starred in the Netflix series Aranyak.