Taapsee Pannu

Taapsee was born on 1 August 1987[4] in New Delhi.[5][6][7] to Dilmohan Singh Pannu and Nirmaljeet.[8] She is of Punjabi descent.[9] She did her schooling at the Mata Jai Kaur Public School in Ashok Vihar, Delhi. After completing her graduation in Computer Science Engineering from the Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology in New Delhi,[10] she worked as a software engineer.[11][12] She became a full-time model after she auditioned and was selected for Channel V's talent show Get Gorgeous, which eventually led her to acting.[13] Taapsee has appeared in numerous print and television commercials and won several titles during her modelling days, including "Pantaloons Femina Miss Fresh Face" and "Safi Femina Miss Beautiful Skin" at the 2008 Femina Miss India contest.[11][14] As a model, she endorsed brands such as Reliance Trends, Red FM 93.5, UniStyle Image, Coca-Cola, Motorola, Pantaloon, PVR Cinemas, Standard Chartered Bank, Dabur, Airtel, Tata Docomo, World Gold Council, Havells and Vardhman.[15] She has also been featured on the cover of magazines Just For Women and MaaStars.[16][17] After a few years, she lost interest in modelling as she thought that she could never gain proper recognition through modelling, but only through films, and finally decided to act.[18]

Taapsee at the launch of Malabar's New Jewellery Range, 2011

Taapsee made her cinematic debut in 2010 with K. Raghavendra Rao's romantic musical Jhummandi Naadam.[19] She played the role of the daughter of a US–based millionaire who comes to India to research traditional Telugu music.[20] Taapsee got three more offers in Telugu prior to the film's release.[20] Her next film Aadukalam (2011), marked her debut in Tamil cinema. She played the role of an Anglo-Indian girl falling in love with a rural man played by Dhanush.[21] The film, set in the backdrop of Madurai, revolves around cockfights. It was critically acclaimed and proceeded to win six National Film Awards at the 58th National Film Awards ceremony. Speaking about her role, a reviewer from Sify said: "Debutant Taapsee is a promising find and she suits the character of an Anglo-Indian girl to the T."[22] She returned to the Telugu film industry with Vastadu Naa Raju (2011), opposite Vishnu Manchu.[23] She made a foray into Malayalam cinema later that year, with Doubles (2011), opposite Mammootty and Nadiya Moidu.[24] Paresh C Palicha of Rediff commented: "Taapsee Pannu as Saira Banu, whose entry into the scene becomes the bone of contention between the siblings, has nothing noteworthy to do".[25]

Taapsee played a short role in her next release Mr. Perfect (2011). In it, she acted alongside Prabhas and Kajal Aggarwal and the film was a moderate success.[26] She starred in a high budget film titled Veera (2011), opposite Ravi Teja and Kajal Aggarwal, which received moderate reviews.[27] She was next seen in her second Tamil film Vandhaan Vendraan, that fetched mixed reviews and did not fare well at the box office.[28] Her next film was Krishna Vamsi's Mogudu where she acted as a traditional Telugu girl opposite Gopichand and garnered critical acclaim for her performance. She worked on the Tamil–Telugu bilingual Gundello Godari—titled Maranthen Mannithen in Tamil—[29] apart from Daruvu and Shadow.[30][31][32] She also made her Bollywood debut through Chashme Baddoor where she shares the screen with Siddharth, Rishi Kapoor, Divyendu Sharma and Ali Zafar. The film is a remake of the 1981 film with the same title.[11][33][34] Taapsee was also approached to dub the voice of Hollywood actress Katee Sackhoff in the Tamil, Telugu and Hindi versions of the science fiction film Riddick, but declined the offer due to her prior commitments.[35][36] In later 2013, she was seen in the big budget action thriller Arrambam co-starring Ajith Kumar and Arya.[37] She was awarded Most Enthusiastic Performer–Female Award at the 2014 Edison Awards for her performance in the film.[38]

After a year without releases, she starred with Akshay Kumar in Neeraj Pandey's film Baby (2015), as undercover agent Shabana Khan.[39] Later, she had two Tamil releases, the horror comedy Muni 3, opposite Raghava Lawrence and Aishwarya R. Dhanush's Vai Raja Vai, which featured her in a special appearance.[40]

Taapsee walks for Divya Reddy at Lakme Fashion Week, 2017

Taapsee appeared alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Kirti Kulhari in Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's courtroom drama Pink (2016). The feature, as well as her performance, generated positive reviews from critics. With a worldwide revenue of ₹1.08 billion (US$15 million), Pink emerged as a commercial success and received critical acclaim, earning the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues; Pannu's performance garnered her a nomination for the Zee Cine Award for Best Actress.

Taapsee's first release of 2017 was the romantic comedy Running Shaadi, followed by the naval war drama The Ghazi Attack, both of which were average grossers. She next reprised her role of Shabana Khan in Naam Shabana—a spin-off of Baby (2015)—with Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Madhurima Tuli, and Manoj Bajpayee. Commercially, the film fared well and collected a total of ₹569 million (US$8.0 million). In her final release of the year, Taapsee collaborated with David Dhawan in the action comedy Judwaa 2, a reboot of 1997 comedy Judwaa, about the story of twin brothers (both played by Varun Dhawan) who are separated at their birth but reunite in their youth. She and Jacqueline Fernandez played the love interests of Dhawan's characters. The movie became a major commercial success with earnings of more than ₹1.35 billion (US$19 million) in India.

2018 was a critically and commercially unsuccessful year in Taapsee's career as her all four releases–Dil Juunglee, Soorma, Mulk and Manmarziyaan–underperformed at the box office. However, her portrayal of a lawyer in Anubhav Sinha's Mulk was critically praised, earning her a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress nomination. She began 2019 by playing a businesswoman in Sujoy Ghosh's mystery thriller Badla, which marked her second collaboration with Amitabh Bachchan. The film was successful at the box office grossing over ₹1.3 billion (US$18 million) worldwide. Her second release was the drama Game Over, a bilingual film in Tamil and Telugu.[41] She next played a devoted wife who cares for her army husband as a nurse despite first fulfilling her dream of becoming a scientist in the Jagan Shakti-directed Mission Mangal, a space drama about the contribution of the scientists to India's 2013 Mars Orbiter Mission. The film received generally positive response; many critics opined that she gives a "more challenging" performance in her career.[42] With a domestic collection of over ₹2 billion (US$28 million), Mission Mangal proved Taapsee's biggest success and one of the highest-grossing Indian films. Her final 2019 film was Tushar Hiranandani's biographical film Saand Ki Aankh, co-starring Bhumi Pednekar, in which she played sharpshooter Prakashi Tomar. Though it was commercially unsuccessful at the box office, her performance was positively reviewed. She was nominated for her second consecutive Filmfare Critics Best Actress Award and won both the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and the Screen Award for Best Actress (Critics).

Anubhav Sinha's female-oriented drama Thappad (2020), about a woman filing divorce after her husband slaps her, marked Taapsee's first film release of 2020.[43] Co-starring Pavail Gulati, it received positive response and was moderately successful. She will star in the murder mystery Haseen Dillruba opposite Vikrant Massey, the athletic drama Rashmi Rocket opposite Aparshakti Khurana and the sports biopic Shabaash Mithu as cricketer Mithali Raj. In addition, Taapsee will team with Tahir Raj Bhasin for the drama Looop Lapeta.