Taapsee Pannu has rarely been attached to the season’s most-feted release. After Gandhari spent a third straight week on a global Netflix chart, she is leaning into that role — and calling herself Hindi cinema’s “dark horse.”
What the film has done
The action film has now featured in Netflix’s Global Top 10 for non-English films for three consecutive weeks, reaching viewers in multiple countries. Pannu’s role demanded physically exacting action sequences, which she performed herself. That is a shift in register from Pink and Thappad, the films that made her name by placing her performances at the centre of stories about social issues and personal agency.
Why the ‘dark horse’ label matters
Her point is not about modesty. In a statement on the film’s response, she drew a line between the anticipation a project gathers before release and the response it earns once people actually watch. “I call myself the dark horse because no one really believes that I can do it or what I will end up doing,” she said. “It’s not like when Gandhari was coming, anyone expected it to be among the top five most anticipated films of the year.”
She said the pattern has repeated across her films, from Pink to Thappad to Gandhari: she is rarely on the most-anticipated list, and she does not expect to be counted among the top three female stars whose films are considered worth the audience’s time on announcement alone. In her telling, the industry’s pre-release buzz can crown a film before anyone has seen it; a dark horse has to prove the opposite after release.
What a three-week chart run really signals
Three weeks on a streaming chart is not a one-day spike. It suggests viewers are finding the film through browsing and word of mouth, and that they are staying with it across markets.
- OTT charts reward sustained viewing, not just opening-day chatter.
- A three-week streak points to repeat viewing or word-of-mouth discovery.
- Pannu’s action turn adds a new dimension to her filmography beyond Pink and Thappad.
The label is bittersweet. “At times, I feel bad that I have to prove myself so many times,” she said. “But I am happy being the dark horse. It is also quite an achievement.” For fans, the takeaway is simple: when a film lingers on a global chart for three weeks, it is no longer a surprise; it is a signal. If Gandhari is still sitting in the watchlist, its third week is a fair reason to press play.
Source: Bollywood Hungama