Actor Taapsee Pannu, who was a guest at Expresso on Friday evening, shared that Mulk director Anubhav Sinha didn’t have enough funds to make the movie, despite having Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee headlining it. So much so that Anubhav actually traveled to set in an e-rickshaw because he was running short of funds. Talking about the 2018 film, which surprisingly did not create much controversy despite its political content, Taapsee said, “Anubhav sir has mentioned on a couple of platforms that he did not get money to make that film.”
Taapsee said that at the time, Anubhav was even asked, ‘Who wants to watch Rishi and Taapsee’, despite one being a veteran star and the other being one of the most popular actors of her generation. “So, he did not get money.” Sharing more “crazy stories” from the making of Mulk, Taapsee said, “He has traveled back and forth to set on an e-rickshaw with everyone, because he just didn’t have the money. And he made sure that at least the actors had cars.” Taapsee, by her own admission, said that she wasn’t a big star at the time, and cut down her fees for the film because she was impressed by the script.
“At that time, whatever I was charging, I told him ‘Sir, aap jo de rahe ho de do (give whatever you want to) because after reading the script, I don’t even know if I should ask for money to do this and I am too insignificant. Mere haan karne se koi film approve ya reject nahi ho rahi uss time pe, (Because I am not in a position to approve or reject a film) I am not that strong or big a name to get budgets approved anyway, I was very realistic about it… I know honestly ki pata nahi picture release bhi ho payegi ya nahi (if the film will even release or not). We were very aware of that fact. He took everything on him. I don’t know where that man got that kind of courage,” she said.
Taapsee was then asked if she would produce or act in a film like Mulk today, and the actor said that she would happily do it, but only if she had a director like Anubhav, and a team that would stand by the film until the very end. She also recalled an incident in Delhi, where they hired an agency to collect some statistical data before the release of the film. “I remember there was an event that we did for the promotions of Mulk in Delhi where we just went out like jaise exit poll hote hain na, we did this whole percentage of how many feel uncomfortable in the presence of a religion, all these kind of statistical data, we took an agency on board, we asked them to do this data referencing of sorts and then put it out there. Someone needs to have courage to say that I am going to do this and put their name to this,” she shared.
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Mulk also starred Manoj Pahwa, Prateik Babbar, Ashutosh Rana, and Neena Gupta. Taapsee recalled that the film was released alongside two other films, and managed to make around Rs 1 crore on its opening day but ended up with around Rs 25 crore at the box office.
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