Women of 'Pink': Meet Amitabh Bachchan's co-stars Taapsee Pannu, Andrea Tariang, Kirti Kulhari

Now that the reviews for Amitabh Bachchan starer Pink are out and the film is already being applauded for its feminist story-line, here’s a little more info on the three young woman who star as the lead protagonists alongside Bachchan. Directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Pink is produced by Rashmi Sharma and filmmaker Shoojit Sircar. The film deals with the aftermath of a sexual molestation incident gone wrong in Delhi. Here are the three girls who made the film a success: Andrea Tariang [caption id=“attachment_3006866” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Andrea. Image courtesy: Twitter[/caption] Andrea Tariang, who made her Bollywood debut with Pink, is in fact new to Bollywood and Hindi as well. PTI reports that Tariang prefers reading books over movies and is not fond of watching TV either. “I did not grow up watching Bollywood films because I don’t understand Hindi that well. The only Bollywood movie I watched recently was Piku. That was before we shot for the film (Pink),” she said in an interview. “I don’t really watch movies. May be once I might have sat down to watch films with my mom when I was child. I read books, my friends usually ask me, ‘how do you survive?’ But I don’t like watching TV that much,” she added. Andrea, along with Taapsee Pannu and Kirti Kulhari, plays one of three young women who face assault charges after being molested by a group of men in Pink. Her lack of understating Hindi very well did come across as a hindrance initially, especially while she was doing her workshops with her co-star Piyush Mishra, but Taapsee and Kirti were always a help. “They helped me a lot. I used to ask them ‘How do I do this, how do I say this’ because there were quite a few dialogues I didn’t understand especially when Piyush Mishra was speaking. He speaks so fast I couldn’t understand what he was saying,” she quipped. Andrea, daughter of famous Shillong-based musician Rudy Wallang, shot her very first scene for Pink with Bachchan and ended up getting praised by him. “The biggest challenge for me were the cameras. There were so many around me when I was shooting and I was so scared. I was always nervous for the first few shoots that we did. My first shot was with Bachchan sir. I had just three words to say to him. My nervousness actually helped the scene because I had to look a little scared. We finished that shot in one take. He stood up and congratulated me.” Post Pink, Andrea is keen to do more Bollywood films, “…that is if I can improve my Hindi first” but is also eager to sing for a film as she is unsure of how the music her band composes can fit in the Bollywood context. Kirti Kulhari [caption id=“attachment_3006860” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Kirti Kulhari. Image courtesy: Twitter[/caption] Meanwhile Kirti Kulhari, who has acted in Shaitan has been very vocal about the misogyny faced by women in today’s society. “I am sure there are worse countries than us but that doesn’t mean we are any good. It’s good there are some changes happening but we have a long way to go,” she said in an interview. “The women have been suppressed a lot as a gender, in general, in the country. Even today, a girl in a normal house will be told how not to dress up, not to come late in the night, not to smoke,” the actress said to PTI. The actress, who has worked in films like Khichdi: The Movie and Jal, considers her role in Pink one of her career-best. Kirti, however, feels sad about the lack of good writing when it comes to female roles, which she says are highly cliched. “In Bollywood, everything is very one dimensional. This is a girl, she laughs a lot, is forever happy, chirpy and that’s all she is doing throughout the film. That’s not how we are. “Unfortunately there’s such bad writing in Bollywood that, things are so bad in the writing stage itself that you can’t do much. I look for characters which will show different aspect and make it feel real,” she said. Taapsee Pannu [caption id=“attachment_3006844” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Taapsee Pannu. Image courtesy: Twitter[/caption] Taapsee Pannu talked about portraying her character. Cinema pundits have already started predicting awards for the website, reports IANS. An an interview, she talked about her role in Pink, “The impact of showing minimal emotions is chilling. We in Indian cinema don’t like to hold back emotions. We like to show all of it coming out in a flow. I realized while shooting in Pink there is much virtue in restrain,” she said.“This is the first film I’ve done with absolutely no makeup. And believe me, it was liberating. I’ve always felt burdened with the war paint that we girls are required to put on for the camera. I don’t use any makeup in real life. I don’t even know how to apply an eyeliner on my own. “In many ways, the character I play in Pink is closest to who I am in real life, though luckily I’ve never gone through what my character has to suffer in the film,” she said. The actress, who played a government agent in the Akshay Kumar starrer Baby, has been in the industry since along time. (With Agency Inputs)