Taapsee Pannu opens up about her mother's experience with casual sexism

 Taapsee Pannu recently bore her heart on her sleeve during an interview where she spoke about her mother’s countless and limitless sacrifices. She admitted that she never realized how much casual sexism had been flung at her right from under her nose.

Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu has been currently busy with promotions for the release of her upcoming film Thappad.

She recently sat down for a candid interview where her mother was the topic of discussion but more specifically, her life experiences with casual sexism.

During a conversation with Barkha Dutt, Taapsee revealed, “All the time. Everywhere. (Getting to see the sacrifice of woman being normalised). I will rarely have examples for those who will not do this or see that they have an equal (right in marriage).”

“There is a beautiful line that I came across recently ‘Shadi me hum ek to ho jate hain, barabar nahi hote hain (We become one in marriage, not equals)’. I think I see it everywhere. In my own house, between my mother and father. My mother always makes sure dad is happy, he eats first. Everything is first about him, which I have grown up and felt this is normal. This is how it is supposed to happen.”

“Fortunately or unfortunately, I never had a brother so I never witnessed any difference of the male-female gender. You see it everywhere around. All my friends are married; I see the same thing happening there. The mother-in-law’s character (in Thappad) is very similar to my mother.”

In an attempt to explain her mother’s feelings regarding the situation, Pannu went onto say, “She might not be as bitter, yet, but it’s the same. Yes, she (Taapsee’s mother) is (bitter). She does feel she needs more attention, because she dedicated her entire life for three of us -me, my sister and my father - and all of us are way too busy in our lives to give her any time and attention. She does complain at times.”

“I do my best to give her time, as much as I can. But I didn’t hear her. I feel I can get her better every year. The older I am getting I am getting to feel her better, that yes, she deserves more attention for what all she has done. When I started working is when I realised the importance of what she was doing, until then we were in a protected environment and were living in a given set of rules.”

Taapsee concluded by saying, “Only when I started working I realised how important the kind of work my mother is doing at home, is and how important it is to have her even if it is behind the scene kind of work. Not really front-runner of the house but it is so important, the backbone of the house. When I started working, I began realising all of this, it is more of a story of transforming from a girl to a woman.”