Taapsee Pannu recalls being dropped because the hero's wife did not like her

Taapsee Pannu has opened up about some of the harder moments of her film career, including losing roles without ever being told why. In a recent interview, the actor said one explanation stood out as the worst she has ever received: the hero's wife did not like her.

Taapsee said she was once taken off a film even after she had locked her dates for it. When she kept asking why, she was simply told that the hero did not want her. "God knows the reason," she said. She added that she could only guess at what happened, from insecurity to the actor wanting someone he was closer to.

The second incident left her even more puzzled. "The worst reason given to me when I was replaced was, 'The hero's wife doesn't like you.' I don't know why she didn't like me," she said. Taapsee did not name the film, the actor or his wife.

She also looked back on her early days, when she knew little about acting or filmmaking and trusted the people around her to tell her what was normal on set. She said she only understood that some scenes had been hypersexualised once she saw the final film, and felt it had been unnecessary. "You can be glamorous in a film without being hypersexualised," she said.

Taapsee has also said she now turns down some films so she is not typecast. She has reportedly spoken in the past about a scene in her Telugu debut, Jhummandi Naadam, directed by K Raghavendra Rao, in which a coconut was thrown at her midriff.

On the work front, Taapsee was last seen in Gandhari, which arrived on Netflix on September 3, 2026. Reports describe it as an action thriller in which she plays a mother setting out to find her kidnapped daughter.