A fortnight before Taapsee Pannu officially steps into Mithali Raj’s shoes for her biopic titled, Shaabash Mithu, the captain of the Indian Women’s ODI Cricket Team created a record. On March 12, she became the second woman ininternational cricket and the first Indian female cricketer to score 10,000 runs. Taapsee, who is currently shooting for Anurag Kashyap’s Dobaaraa, will take a week-long breather and then, start shooting for the biopic, helmed by Rahul Dholakia, towards the end of March.
“I have lost count of Mithali’s landmark achievements,” she exclaims, talking about the Indian skipper. Taapsee adds, “Almost every time that she steps on to the pitch, she achieves something of value, something of worth. She’s conducted her career in such a way that it’s punctuated with so many lovely accomplishments all along.”

Tapsee says, “It was already daunting to play her on the big screen, and now, the stakes are even higher. She holds a record for her 50s. And now, she has surpassed the 10,000-run mark. She is one of the most experienced women cricketers we have right now. There is a lot of pressure to play her on screen. It was already at its maximum when she achieved this high tally.”

With Mithali’s recent record-breaking achievement, do the film’s writers and producers plan to revisit the script? “A biopic has to have a finite start and end to the story. Mithali scored a century when she was just starting out. From that point to now, there is a lot that the script already entails. The tricky part for the writers is that she is a legend, and she is still active in the game,” points out Taapsee.

She further elaborates, “For a film, you need a timeline-bound script. There is a point where you have to let the story rest. If one keeps revisiting the script, one would have to wait to see the results of the World Cup next year before starting to shoot. So, we have chosen a milestone in her career and locked the script in such a way that it’s believable and probably, even on expected lines that she would go on to achieve what she recently has. Mithali is such a consistent and legendary performer.”

Taapsee messaged Mithali to congratulate her on the landmark achievement. “Each time that I have messaged Mithali to congratulate her for an achievement in any match, however big or small it is, she has always been more concerned about the team’s performance. I messaged and congratulated her this time, too. And all she was concerned about was the team’s performance,” says Taapsee.

She adds, “For Mithali, no achievement of hers has ever been more important than the team’s performance. Today, I feel tremendous pressure as I get close to the shooting date. I am anxious because now, I am in the last stages of my training. We will start shooting in Mumbai towards the last week of March. I’m getting excitementwale jitters to play a living, active legend.”