'The kind of things they were writing, 'Oh, what is this, she's overacting at her wedding.' 'Why is she not covering her head?'
'The kind of liberty people take to comment on what I should be doing in my personal life is not something I'm okay with.'
Taapsee shares why she keeps her personal life private, especially her wedding to Danish badminton ace Mathias Boe, who coached India's doubles stars, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy before giving it up after the Paris Olympics.
"I don't like to milk a headline out of it. I've seen with actresses that once you are with someone, regardless of how big or small the personality of that someone is, that starts overtaking your headlines, including my work," Taapsee says.
She recalled how a one-page interview about her work was overshadowed by a headline about whom she is dating.
"So when I spoke about him very casually, it became the headline of a one-page interview that I gave about my work. Imagine someone would just come into the industry, and has just done her first film. My second film, Baby, was about to release, and I had heartfully given an interview talking about how my first movie became a success, how I got a small but powerful role in this film, and how I'm trying to transition from South to Hindi cinema. I spoke so much but all they could carry as a headline was his name just because I'm seeing this person.
"I don't even know if they know exactly who he is. But it was just probably of interest. So that didn't make me feel nice because I've worked really hard to be where I am, to earn the name that I have. It cannot be overtaken by anybody else who is not responsible for that, right? So it's my personal life and it will be strictly personal, and this is my profession," she adds.
Taapsee states she and Mathias Boe have been seeing each other for almost a decade.
"We are married now but we were seeing each other for 10 years before we got married. It was pretty much the same year when I debuted in the film industry," she says.
Despite her desire for privacy, leaked footage from her Udaipur wedding surfaced online just a few days after the event.
The videos offered glimpses of Taapsee in a red bridal suit, dancing with her sister and friends. But the actress remains wary of the public scrutiny that often accompanies such personal moments.
"You will be thinking so much before releasing those pictures because you know you're putting your personal life out for almost butchering. And I was right. Unfortunately, a few videos of my wedding were leaked a few weeks later," she says.
"That validated my belief that I should not be putting my personal life out there. The kind of things they were writing, 'Oh, what is this, she's overacting at her wedding. Why is she not covering her head? The kind of liberty people take to comment on what I should be doing in my personal life is not something I'm okay with.
"I know my professional life is courtesy them in a lot of ways. They are the audience and need to have an opinion about my work but not regarding my personal life," she says.
Taapsee also spoke about her passion for sports, stating that her visit to the Olympics was both a personal and professional choice.
Reflecting on her time in Paris, Taapsee describes the sweltering heat she experienced: "I was privileged to have AC there because, fortunately or unfortunately, I was not in the Olympic Village. I was staying in a hotel. But it was really hot. It was excruciatingly hot."
She said she wanted to watch the Olympics due to her husband Mathias, who recently announced his retirement from coaching after the Paris Olympics.
"This might be the last Olympics that Mathias is a part of. That's why I was like, okay, I could never go and see him play because I didn't want to. Because it was very stressful to see him play live. All the years we were together, I never saw him really, apart for like two-three Super Series tournaments, but not the major ones because it was very stressful to watch him play," she says.
"So I thought, okay, this is the last time and this time he's the coach, not the player, so it's relatively less stressful. So I went this time."
