Taapsee Pannu

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Birth name Taapsee Pannu
Nationality Inde
Birth 1 august 1987 (33 years)

Taapsee Pannu (born 1 August 1987) is an Indian model and actress, who has worked in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi film industries. Taapsee worked as a software professional and also pursued a career in modelling before becoming an actress. During her modelling career, she appeared in a number of commercials and won titles such as "Pantaloons Femina Miss Fresh Face" and "Safi Femina Miss Beautiful Skin" in 2008.

After a short stint with modelling, Taapsee made her acting debut with the 2010 Telugu film Jhummandi Naadam directed by Raghavendra Rao. Since then, she has appeared in a number of critically acclaimed films such as Aadukalam, Vastadu Naa Raju and Mr. Perfect. Her Tamil film Aadukalam won six National Film Awards at the 58th National Film Awards. She has also worked in a Malayalam film and has been signed on for three Telugu films and a Hindi film. She was awarded Most Enthusiastic Performer-Female Award at the 2014 Edison Awards for her performance in Tamil film Arrambam (2013). In 2015, she starred in the critically and commercially successful film Baby.

Biography

Early life and family
Taapsee was born on 1 August 1987 in New Delhi into a Jat Sikh family. She has a sister named Shagun Pannu and plans to launch her into films as well. 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, she worked as a software engineer. 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. 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. As a model, she endorsed brands like 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. She has also been featured on the cover of magazines Just For Women and MaaStars. 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.

2010–present: Debut in films

"Initially, I wanted to be a full-time model and never thought I could act. As time went by, modelling became not that exciting or enjoyable as posing in front of the camera became monotonous. Also, I felt my name was not being highlighted. The name gets highlighted only in films. So I wanted to act."

—Taapsee talking about how she got into films

Taapsee made her cinematic debut in 2010 with K. Raghavendra Rao's romantic musical Jhummandi Naadam. She played the role of the daughter of a US-based millionaire who comes to India to research traditional Telugu music. Taapsee got three more offers in Telugu prior to the film's release. 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. 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." She returned to the Telugu film industry with Vastadu Naa Raju (2011) opposite Vishnu Manchu. She made a foray into Malayalam cinema later that year, with Doubles (2011) opposite Mammootty and Nadiya Moidu. 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".

Taapsee played a short role in her next release, Mr. Perfect (2011). In it, she acted alongside Prabhas and Kajal Aggarwal and the movie was a moderate success. She starred in a high budget film titled Veera (2011) opposite Ravi Teja and Kajal Aggarwal, which received moderate reviews. She was next seen in her second Tamil film Vandhaan Vendraan that fetched mixed reviews and did not fare well at the box office. 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— apart from Daruvu and Shadow. 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. 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. In later 2013, she was seen in the big budget action thriller Arrambam co-starring Ajith Kumar and Arya. She was awarded Most Enthusiastic Performer-Female Award at the 2014 Edison Awards for her performance in the film.

After a year without releases, she starred opposite Akshay Kumar in Neeraj Pandey's film Baby (2015), as an undercover agent. 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 special appearance. Her upcoming films include the Hindi films Running Shaadi.com alongside Amit Sadh, and Agra Ka Daabraa by Amit Roy as well as a Tamil film directed by Selvaraghavan.