Taapsee Pannu reveals other actors rejected Haseen Dillruba for Vikrant Massey: ‘I was like, dude’

Taapsee Pannu delivered three films this year of which Haseen Dillruba remains one of the most talked about projects for the actor. She starred opposite Vikrant Massey in the romantic mystery thriller. However, writer Kanika Dhillon wasn’t keen to do the film with her despite the actor’s willingness to come onboard. Taapsee was offered the film only when all others turned it down. 

In a candid chat with Rajeev Masand during the Actors’ Roundtable 2021, Taapsee cited the possible reasons which made other actors say no to the film. She said that Kanika didn’t want her to do Haseen Dillruba because she had just worked in a similar film, Badla at that time. 

“During the whole narration, I was smirkly looking at her, ‘You didn’t come to me with this before’. I was almost manifesting it somewhere that I really want to do this. I was not probably the first, second or third choice for this. It was only when everybody else had said no that it came to me. I was very happy about it, first because I wanted to do it, when I heard it, I didn’t understand why would anyone say no to it,” said Taapsee. 

When Raveena Tandon and Konkona Sen Sharma registered their surprise in unison, “Why would anyone say no to that?” Taapsee replied, “I can tell you the reasons why probably others said no to it – too grey, not likeable woman character or who’s the hero?”

“I was like ‘Dude, its Haseen Dillruba, I don’t care about who the hero is. Those were the kind of questions because of which others didn’t work out and thank god for that” she said. 

Also read: Taapsee Pannu says A-list actors refuse roles in her films, reveals the excuses they give

Konkona added, “And he (Vikrant Massey) is such a good actor!” Taapsee joined her to cheer for him, “Ya, Vikrant, I said, ‘look at the hero’.”

Haseen Dillruba released on Netflix. It was directed by Vinil Mathew and also starred Harshvardhan Rane.