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HT Youth Forum 2017 | Let’s not lose the momentum on gender equality: Taapsee Pannu

About her Punjabi connection — as the Forum is a flagship annual programme of HT-Punjab — she gushed about how she’s a “hardcore Jatti” who can read and write Gurmukhi (script).

Updated on: May 28, 2017, 11:04:43 IST
Hindustan Times, Chandigarh | By , Chandigarh
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She is a youth icon, is keyed in to Twitter and other social media, but Taapsee Pannu is not a big fan of gadgetry. “My kids, whenever they happen, will not have access to mobile phone, tabs and all till high school. I’ll be a nasty mother,” says the ‘Pink’ actor.

Taapsee Pannu at HT Youth Forum 2017 event in Chandigarh. (HT Photo)
Taapsee Pannu at HT Youth Forum 2017 event in Chandigarh. (HT Photo)

She was speaking during a panel discussion with fellow actor Anil Kapoor, filmmaker Imtiaz Ali and cricketer Gautam Gambhir at the HT Youth Forum 2017 in Chandigarh on Friday evening.

Referring to the movie that spotlighted gender bias and made her a star, she said as a young person she feels a sense of responsibility towards the cause of women empowerment, “We have seen a lot of positive steps… We must keep up the momentum, and not lose it.”

About her Punjabi connection — as the Forum is a flagship annual programme of HT-Punjab — she gushed about how she’s a “hardcore Jatti” who can read and write Gurmukhi (script). “My Hindi, English, everything sounds like Punjabi,” she laughed.

When panellists were asked to pose questions to each other, she turned to the moderator, HT’s Sonal Kalra, and had a tough one for her instead: “How important is it to have a controversy attached to your name to be a trending ? Has niceness stopped selling?” Sonal agreed with what was essentially a rhetorical question but assured her that there are people within the media fraternity who are working towards changing this.

Taapsee was not done. She turned to Imtiaz and asked : “When will you cast me in a movie? I’ll be a first-take-OK actor. I am even ready to audition.” He agreed right away and sought shooting dates. Needless to say, the audience was as excited as Taapsee.

  • Aarish Chhabra
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Aarish Chhabra

    Aarish Chhabra is an Associate Editor with the Hindustan Times online team, writing news reports and explanatory articles, besides overseeing coverage for the website. His career spans nearly two decades across India's most respected newsrooms in print, digital, and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats — from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary — building a body of work that reflects both editorial rigour and a deep curiosity about the society he writes for. Aarish studied English literature, sociology and history, besides journalism, at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and started his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of ‘The Big Small Town: How Life Looks from Chandigarh’, a collection of critical essays originally serialised as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, examining the culture and politics of a city that is far more than its famous architecture — and, in doing so, holding up a mirror to modern India. In stints at the BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV, and Jagran New Media, he worked across formats and languages; mainly English, also Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project replicated across the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and content quality. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, he developed a website that simplified academic research in management. At Bennett University's Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing, to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from a small town to a bigger town to a mega city for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture — a perspective that informs both his writing and his view of the world. When not working, he is constantly reading long-form journalism or watching brainrot content, sometimes both at the same time.Read More