Actor Taapsee Pannu is gearing up for the release of her film Assi. The film marks her third collaboration with director Anubhav Sinha after Mulk and Thappad. In the hard-hitting social drama, Taapsee plays a lawyer who takes on a brutal rape case and fights for the victim. Speaking with news agency PTI, Taapsee said unconventional stories like Assi are on the verge of becoming ‘extinct species.’
What Taapsee said
“We are on the verge of becoming an extinct species, we mean films like ‘Assi’. There is a certain template that our so-called commercial cinema abides by and we don’t conventionally fall in that template of sorts… The reality is people think that these kinds of films will keep coming on OTT and we will keep watching it. But no, OTT’s don’t want these kinds of films either. They have clear mandates, that only the films that are working in theatres are the films that they want to pick.”
‘Watching it on OTT is not how you support good cinema’
She went on to add, “They want to take that theatre audience to their platform. They are like, ‘We already have this kind of audience, we want those massy pot boilers audiences of our country to subscribe to the platform’, That’s why I say we are on the verge of becoming extinct unless people realise that we need to watch it. Sometimes it’s good to watch reality as well… We have a lot of people saying we don’t make good and rooted stories. But when did you support rooted stories? By sitting at home and watching it on OTT is not how you support good cinema. If you like the film, spread the word, let more people come into theatres.”
Assi also stars Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra, Kani Kusruti, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Supriya Pathak, Revathi and Naseeruddin Shah.
