Mumbai: Actress Taapsee Pannu has proved her acting talent by portraying challenging roles. Apart from being a versatile actor, she has also been outspoken on different issues and never shies away from expressing her views. The ‘Baby’ star, who has played sports personalities several times on screen, shared her take on the gender eligibility controversy involving Algerian boxer Imane Khelif at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Khalif defeated China’s Yang Liu in the final to secure the Olympic gold medal in the women’s welterweight (66kg) competition. Khalif, who was suspended from competing in world championships due to failures in testosterone testing and gender eligibility, scored a controversial victory over Italy’s Angela Carini in just 46 seconds after her opponent had quit in the first round.
In the semi-finals, she defeated Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng 5-0, by points victory. The win over Carini sparked adverse comments from many prominent people like JK Rowling and Elon Musk, who took to social media to question Khelif’s gender. Just before her gold medal fight at the International Boxing Association (IBA) Women’s Championship held in New Delhi last year, Khelif was disqualified for not meeting the IBA’s eligibility criteria. She was not allowed to compete due to elevated testosterone levels, according to ESPN. The IOC defended the rights of Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, another female boxer under scrutiny due to her failure to meet an unspecified eligibility requirement in a biochemical test to compete at the Olympics.
In an exclusive conversation with ANI, Taapsee spoke about the issue and how her critically acclaimed film ‘Rashmi Rocket’ also deals with the issue of gender testing in sports. In the film, Taapsee plays the role of a professional runner.
“I played a role in that issue. I did a film called ‘Rashmi Rocket’, which was about a female athlete who was banned from competing in a competition because she was found to have high levels of testosterone. So I played that role. I mean, we put forward our views and that’s why I think the beauty of the kind of films I make is that sometimes my films talk about the muddas (issues) that I personally believe in without making a statement outwardly.”
Set in Kutch, ‘Rashmi Rocket’ is about a young girl from a small town who wins accolades for the country as a professional runner. However, her life takes a turn when she is called for a gender verification test.
Directed by Akarsh Khurana, the film also stars Supriya Pathak and Abhishek Banerjee.
Produced by Ronnie Screwvala, Neha Anand and Pranjal Khandhiya, ‘Rashmi Rocket’ has been written by Nanda Periyasamy, Aniruddha Guha and Kanika Dhillon.
She said that her role in ‘Rashmi Rocket’ touched on this issue and questioned the disqualification criteria based on a higher level of testosterone. “I talked about a film where I played an athlete. It is not in my power to control my hormones. It is not that I have taken supplements or injected myself with hormones. It is that I was born with them. Our argument in the film was that there are many athletes who are born with an advantage over others. Like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, all these people are also born with a certain biological advantage over others. Why are they not banned from participating? And why is only someone who has a higher level of testosterone banned from participating? If she has injected herself for this particular competition, then of course it should be illegal and she should be banned. But if she is not, then for something which is not in her control, she has been banned. So that is the character I played in the film as well. That was my statement,” she added while talking about the controversy.
Taapsee is known for her powerful performances in films like ‘Pink’, ‘Thappad’, ‘Rashmi Rocket’, ‘Shabaash Mithu’, among others. Though she made her Bollywood debut with ‘Chashme Baddoor’ in 2013, she gained much prominence with her films like ‘Baby’ and ‘Pink’.
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