Right before the pandemic hit us hard, a few young Bollywood stars were sat in a round table interview discussing their journeys.
Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, Tara Sutaria, Abhimanyu Dassani, Vishal Jethwa, Saloni Batra and Geetika Vidya Ohlyan were in talks about their rise in the industry.
However, when Ananya Panday expressed her opinions on nepotism and her father, famous Bollywood actor Chunkey Panday making his own way into the industry, netizens did not take it well.
“I have always wanted to be an actor. Just because my dad has been an actor, I will never say no to an opportunity to act. My dad has never been in a Dharma film, he never went on Koffee With Karan. So it’s not as easy as people say. Everyone has their own journey and their own struggle. Mine has been a lot of personal experience, I have seen my dad go through so many things that I don’t take anything too seriously. I overcompensate sometimes. I am so scared that people may say that oh you are taking things too lightly’ so I will come extra early to places. I am so happy that I have this chance,” Ananya had said.
Ananya’s close friend and upcoming co-star Siddhant Chaturvedi had responded to her comments with one of his own, after which he got a lot of recognition from fans and netizens for rising in Bollywood as an outsider! He had replied to Ananya saying, “The difference is jahaan humare sapne poore hote hain, wahi inka struggle shuru hota hai (their struggle begins where our dreams are fulfilled).”
Ananya was also subjected to plentiful trolling post this interview and she had not spoken about the conversation until recently. In an interview with Srishti Dixit, Ananya cleared the air and responded saying, “Basically, I agree. But also I think that Sid and I were kind of saying the same thing. Sometimes, in interviews, as you can see, I’m very overwhelmed. If I had to go back, I would probably change the way I said something.”
She also went on to assure everyone that she’s close friends with Siddhant and that his ‘struggle’ comment was never meant to hurt her. “We were laughing about it later. Sid and I are really close. We have no weird thing about this. People made it something bigger and it became meme-worthy. Genuinely my intention wasn’t like what came across,” she says.
Additionally, Ananya and Siddhant co-star in Shakun Batra’s relationship drama that also features Deepika Padukone and Dhairya Karwa. The two are reportedly going to star in another film along with Adarsh Gourav that is produced by Zoya Akhtar.