Do we like Taapsee Pannu?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Decent record on both tests, with a long public feud and a tax-raid allegation she denied, and no LGBTQ+-specific statement found either way.
Taapsee Pannu is a Hindi film actress who has also worked in Telugu and Tamil cinema, and she now produces as well. Her public image is built on strong women on screen: a courtroom drama in Mulk, and now a mother's revenge story in Netflix's Gandhari. She also talks openly about the films she turns down, saying in one interview that you wouldn't believe how many she has refused.
Her biggest ongoing stoush is with Kangana Ranaut. It began in 2019 when Ranaut's sister, Rangoli Chandel, called Pannu a “sasti copy” of Kangana, and it has been rolled out again whenever the pair are asked about it. In August 2026 Ranaut repeated the label and questioned Pannu's upbringing. Pannu said she has never met her and asked the press why they won't let it end. This reads as two public figures sniping across a gap, not a pattern of Pannu going after someone.
In March 2021 the Income Tax Department searched properties linked to Pannu and director Anurag Kashyap, and later claimed to have found evidence of Rs 5 crore in cash receipts by her. Pannu denied it, said she owns no Paris bungalow, and mocked the search with a postscript that she was “not so sasti anymore”. We found no reporting of a final outcome, so it stays an allegation she denies. Her supporters saw the timing as political; the department said the searches turned up discrepancies.
On the harm test, the record we read is clean. In 2018 she said it was disturbing that a particular religion was targeted, and that making Mulk was a way of venting about how Muslims are treated. We found nothing on LGBTQ+ issues from her either way, so that's a gap rather than a tick. Her recent projects, including Gandhari with director Kanika Dhillon, turned up no harmful company.
On the good stuff, she became the first female ambassador of the Hemkunt Foundation in 2022 and joined its advisory board. The foundation's focus includes affordable healthcare and a menstrual hygiene campaign. It's the kind of platform use that puts the work ahead of the photo.
Put together, she passes both tests. The feud is noisy and not nasty, the tax allegation is contested and unresolved, and what she has actually said and done points the right way. The one thing we couldn't find is a clear word from her on trans and LGBTQ+ rights, so that's the box to watch.