Small-budget films get affected by ‘star system’ in Bollywood: Taapsee Pannu

Taapsee Pannu opened up about how small-budget films get affected by the ‘star system’ in Bollywood. In an interview with a leading media house, the actor, who made her debut as a producer with the just-released film ‘Dhak Dhak’, called out the hypocrisy that’s blatant in the film industry. She said people want to know ‘who is the hero’ even before they hear a line about a film.

“This myth I had about people believing that ‘content is king’ was shattered while making this film. There’s so much hypocrisy. They will hear your one-line story and be quick to ask, ‘Who is the hero in the film?’ That determines their financial and emotional investment in the project. As an actor, I never asked who my co-star was or how big the makers were when I signed a movie. I worked with so many first-time directors and co-stars who were newcomers, but that is not how others look at it,” she said.

The actor believes that it all boils down to the ‘star system’ eventually, which still exists despite the advent of OTT.

“Everyone involved is to be blamed for this culture. It includes the actors, studios, audience and everyone else. It’s a cycle. Just because the studios recover their investment (by selling digital rights) for the smaller films, there’s minimal interest in packaging and releasing a film well. That’s detrimental to the growth of the industry because you are only enabling the big names. How will the rest get a chance? It’ll only widen the gap between actors and stars. We keep saying Bollywood doesn’t attempt something meaningful, but when we try to do that, there’s rarely any support and this must change,” she added.