“I have been told that I was replaced by the hero of the film. God knows the reason. I keep imagining the reasons. I can imagine the insecurity, I can imagine that he wanted someone else whom he was closer to. I can imagine various reasons, but I wasn’t given any solid reason. I was just told that he didn’t want me in the film because I kept asking the reason for my removal.”

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This is not the first time Taapsee has spoken about being dropped from a project. In a 2021 conversation with Siddharth Kannan, she recalled being finalised for a film before being removed and said she found out about the decision through the media.

“I was just removed. I got to know through the media. They called me, just to apologise, after I had spoken out. But still, they were hesitant to reveal the real reason behind the decision.”

The episode appeared to relate to Pati Patni Aur Woh, which eventually starred Kartik Aaryan, Bhumi Pednekar and Ananya Panday. At the time, Taapsee had publicly questioned the way she was removed from the project, while the producers said she had been among several actresses considered for the role and that they had not made a commitment to her.

‘The hero’s wife doesn’t like you’

Taapsee also shared one of the reasons she was given for being replaced in another film. Recalling what she described as the worst explanation she received, she said it involved the hero’s wife.

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“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.”

Taapsee Pannu on realising she had been hypersexualised

Taapsee said that when she was starting out, she did not always have the experience or understanding to recognise when a scene was being hypersexualised or how it would eventually be presented. She said it was often only after watching the finished film that she could see the difference between what she had expected on set and what appeared on screen.

“I didn’t know it was hypersexualised. You only realise it when you see the output. When you are shooting, you don’t realise that it is going in that direction. I thought it was going to be very aesthetic and not too focused on that. When I saw it, I felt like it was unnecessary.”

The actor said being new to filmmaking, she relied heavily on the people around her to understand what was considered normal on a film set.

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“You have been told by people around you that it is normal, everybody is doing it, so you feel maybe you are coming from a different background and you don’t know. I didn’t have a clue about acting or filmmaking, so I thought it was part and parcel of the job, only to realise later that it’s not necessary. You can be glamorous in a film without being hypersexualised.”

Taapsee had previously spoken about the way female actors and their bodies are discussed and presented in the industry. In an earlier conversation with Shubhankar Mishra, she discussed the focus on the female body in song sequences, particularly in South Indian cinema.

“I’m also trying to understand. It’s not that item songs in Hindi cinema don’t focus on it, but it’s not as much as in South Cinema. Hindi cinema is more about cleavage,” she had said.

She also recalled hearing about actresses being asked to wear padded bras during shoots and how awkward the communication around such requests could become on set.

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Taapsee has also previously recalled an incident from the beginning of her career involving filmmaker K Raghavendra Rao, who directed her Telugu debut Jhummandi Naadam. She said a coconut was thrown at her midriff during a scene that was supposed to convey sensuality.

“I don’t know what’s sensuous about a coconut hitting my midriff,” she had recalled.

Taapsee Pannu was last seen in Netflix film Gandhari that was released on September 3, 2026.