“Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps…why aren’t they banned?”: Taapsee Pannu on Imane Khelif gender row at Paris Olympics

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 21 (ANI): Actor Taapsee Pannu has proven her acting talent by doing challenging roles. Apart from being a versatile actor, she has also been vocal about different subjects and never shies away from expressing her views. The ‘Baby’ star, who has played sports personalities several times on-screen, shared her opinion on the gender eligibility controversy involving Algerian boxer Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics 2024.

Khalif defeated Yang Liu of China in the final to secure the Olympic gold medal in the welterweight (66 kg women’s) competition. Khalif, who was banned from competing in world championships following failures in testosterone and gender eligibility tests, achieved a controversial win over Italy’s Angela Carini within just 46 seconds after her opponent quit in the opening round.

In the semifinals, she defeated Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand by 5-0, via win by points. The win over Carini drew adverse comments from many prominent people like JK Rowling and Elon Musk who took to social media questioning the gender of Khelif. Just before her gold medal bout in the International Boxing Association (IBA) Women’s Championships held in New Delhi last year, Khelif was disqualified as she had failed to meet IBA’s eligibility criteria. She was not allowed to compete due to elevated testosterone levels, as per ESPN. IOC defended the rights of Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, another boxer under scrutiny due to failing an unspecified eligibility requirement in a biochemical test to compete in the Olympics.

In an exclusive conversation with ANI, Taapsee talked about the issue and how her critically acclaimed film ‘Rashmi Rocket’ also deals with the subject of gender testing in sports. In the film, Taapsee was seen essaying the role of a professional runner.

“I played a role on that subject. I did a film called ‘Rashmi Rocket’ which was about a female athlete being banned because she was detected with a high level of testosterone. So, I played this role. I mean we presented our views and that’s why you know I think the beauty of the kind of films I get is sometimes I get my films to talk about the muddas (issues) that I personally believe in without making a statement outside.”

Set in Kutch, ‘Rashmi Rocket’ is about a young girl from a small village who wins accolades for the country as a professional runner. However, her life takes a turn when she’s called in 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 Khandhdiya, ‘Rashmi Rocket’ has been written by Nanda Periyasamy, Aniruddha Guha and Kanika Dhillon.

She said her role in ‘Rashmi Rocket’ touched on this issue and questioned the disqualification criteria on the basis of a higher level of testosterone. “That was a film that I spoke about where I played the athlete. And it is not in my control what my hormones are. It’s not like I’ve taken supplements. It’s not like I’ve injected any hormones. It’s just I was born with it. Our argument in the film was that there are so many athletes who are born with an edge over others. Like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, all these people are also born with a certain biological edge over others. Why are they not banned? And why only someone who has a higher level of testosterone is banned? If she has taken injections for this particular competition, then, of course, it should be illegal and she should be banned. But if she is not, then by something that is not in her control, you’ve banned her. So that’s the character that I played in the film as well. So that was my statement,” she added while talking about the controversy.

Taapsee is known for her powerful performances in movies such as ‘Pink’, ‘Thappad’, ‘Rashmi Rocket’, ‘Shabaash Mithu’, among others. Although she made her Bollywood debut with ‘Chashme Baddoor’ in 2013, she gained a lot of prominence with her movies such as ‘Baby’ and ‘Pink’.