Ananya Panday Comes Of Age
The Hindi film industry has had it rough these past few years, no one is going to the theatres anymore (mostly because it costs a million dollars to watch a film now), the quality hasn’t exactly encouraged people to go the movies, and then there is launch vehicle after launch vehicle of often the same star kid, who refuses to take off. At some point, the uncles and aunties, and family friends need to take a hint, and just stop.
Ananya Panday has received her fair share of criticism in the five years since she debuted with Student of the Year 2. Then there was the famous roundtable, and a bunch of forgettable films in between. But I think something has shifted in the last year and a half. With Gehraiyaan (2022, streaming on Amazon Prime Video), it felt like there was more than what met the eye with her. Later in the year on Koffee With Karan, she spoke honestly about Kabir Singh, while Vijay Deverkonda, who starred in the original, Arjun Reddy, sat next to her. That’s more than what most of Bollywood had done, many had in fact described Kabir Singh as a depiction of true love (not every opinion needs to be documented).
In her Koffee With Karan (Season 8) appearance last year, Panday, again came across as sincere, and I personally enjoyed her response of trying to discover parts of herself, beyond how she looked. She said that she had spent so much time focusing on how she looked, that she never got around to discovering other parts of herself before. It was a rare moment of honesty, that’s sort of disappeared from the last few seasons of Koffee With Karan. Later in the year, her portrayal of what heartbreak looks like for Gen Z in Kho Gaye Hum Kahan (Netflix) surprised everyone with it’s honesty. The film, packaged as a coming of age in the digital era, made it feel like Panday was finally coming into her own.
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But anyone can have one good film. So it was important that with her next few projects she didn’t go back to the roles that she was doing before. In 2024, Panday made her series debut with Amazon Prime’s comedy show Call Me Bae. It was a role that could have easily gone into silly, slapstick territory. Yet, Panday, in a role that mirrors her own privilege, manages to be both, funny, and endearing. I was very intrigued by Panday’s appearances on Koffee With Karan, as well as her turn in Kho Gaye Hum Kahan last year, which led me to a Youtube rabbit hole of Panday’s promotional interviews. There is a shift in how she is communicating now, there is an earnestness to her that I hadn’t noticed before. In the past, if attempts were made to brush aside her privilege, now she seems curious about things she doesn’t know, or the experiences she hasn’t had. Maybe it’s a new PR strategy. Maybe she grew up in front of the camera. I mean, no one would sound sensible in an interview when they are 18. This new version of Panday wouldn’t maybe make the same comment on the roundtable, but she can laugh about it as she did in Call Me Bae. Again, very few actors in Bollywood laugh at their own selves. It’s a rare quality that comes across in Panday in her interviews, and now her work.
Recently, Panday’s new film CTRL, hit Netflix. When Vikramaditya Motwane announced that his next film starred Ananya Panday, there was a lot of backlash on the interweb- “Nepotism wrapped it’s long arms around Motwane too”, “Now we will have to see a bad Motwane film”, “Ugh, I am so disappointed in Motwane.” This is what my Twitter timeline looked like.
CTRL is out now in the universe, and it is fantastic. The film primarily stars one actor, few of her closest devices, and an AI assistant. At this point, we have established that Panday does confused on the internet Gen Z well. But we haven’t seen her do it this well, especially because a lot of the film is her staring at a screen (like me most days). CTRL is terrifying, it makes me want to write down all my password on a piece of paper à la Neville Longbottom, or better yet, throw away this laptop that knows all my secrets, run to the hills, and start using a landline. If the telephone is a cute colour, I could even post it on my Instagram. #Retro. Wait, there is no Instagram in my new life. I digress. Motwane is that rare filmmaker in Hindi cinema, who is always restrained, with the duration, the tonality, the casting, and the background music in his films. No shots are wasted. If there are songs, that’s because they need to be there as part of the film, and not part of it’s promotional material. CTRL needed an actor to exhibit that same restraint. Panday fits into that role perfectly, whether she is creating a break up song for her followers, or being fearful of her AI. The last few minutes of the film, are unlike what you see in a Hindi film. It’s dark, and it’s frustrating, but there is also an acceptance (I want to say more, but that will feel like a spoiler). Hindi films don’t usually end like this. Credit to both Motwane, and Panday for going through with it.
Public memory is short. People want to see good movies, irrespective of where you come from. It’ll be exciting to see what Panday does next, especially if she chooses to diversify her role selection. The audience is seated, with popcorn.
