Rana Daggubati reveals Taapsee Pannu’s role in Ghazi was created just so they could have ‘a girl on the poster’

Rana Daggubati revealed that The Ghazi Attack had none of the trappings of a commercial film when it was originally conceptualised.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | March 23, 2023 01:21 PM IST

3 min read

the ghazi attack, taapsee pannu, rana daggubati

Rana Daggubati and Taapsee Pannu in a still from The Ghazi Attack.

Actor Rana Daggubati has his finger in many pies; he’s a movie star, a producer, an entrepreneur. And that’s how he has been ever since he started out in the industry, when he became a pan-Indian presence even before such a term existed. In the aftermath of the success of SS Rajamouli’s first Baahubali film, in which Rana played the villain, he starred in the submarine thriller Ghazi.

The Telugu film was retooled into something that could appeal to a pan-Indian audience, and was also released in Hindi as The Ghazi Attack. In an interview, Rana said that the film was very different when it was initially conceptualised, and that it wasn’t easy to convince people to make it. It had none of the trappings of a commercial entertainer, and didn’t even have a female character until a new role was written specifically to fill this void.

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Asked about the film, Rana said on Raj Shamani’s podcast, “Ghazi was a very, very interesting film to put together, it was the first submarine movie. It was so hard for me to convince people to make that film. It was in Telugu at that point. There was action, but nobody fights anybody. There’s no songs in the movie, there was no girl in the movie before. We wrote a role, and Taapsee was kind enough to play a special appearance, so there was a girl on the poster. It could feel like a commercial film. It was fun to put together.”

Taapsee’s career was at a crossroads at that point. She was an already established name in the South Indian industries, but was trying to make inroads into Bollywood. In fact, she had just announced her grand arrival in Bollywood over the past few years, with Baby and Pink, and was quickly becoming a hot commodity.

She was last seen in the thriller Blurr, which she also produced. Rana, on the other hand, starred in Rana Naidu, Netflix’s Hindi remake of the hit Showtime series Ray Donovan.

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