Ananya Panday tells me that she “cries every day”. Less fact, more hyperbole, and the 22-year-old actor laughs when I respond to this declaration with, “Are you being serious?!”.
“Well, not every single day, of course, but I cry at least once a week… it’s a problem,” she tells me. “I think I am very sensitive… The last time I cried was three days ago, on Saturday, because I rewatched Rang De Basanti, which is such a masterpiece. I had goosebumps throughout, and I cried while the song Khoon Chala played…I got really emotional about it. I love it when a film can do that…” Ananya admits that she can be “very intense” and that may have something to do with her zodiac sign. She is a Scorpio, after all. “I am also fiercely loyal and very emotional…which Scorps are meant to be,” she declares.
On camera, in person, and over a Zoom call—my screen shows Ananya seated on a plush sofa, while her Labrador Astro barks and demands to be let out—there is absolutely nothing heavy-hearted about our covergirl. On the contrary, she remains one of my favourite actors to interview because she is certainly smart and funny…and incredibly warm. But Ananya’s charm is only compounded by how she also possesses a quality that God skimped on, while creating celebrities—an ability to not take herself too seriously.
Over the next 45 minutes, Ananya and I chat about her most embarrassing moments, the power of self-love, her views on ‘cancel culture’, and how one day, she might—just might—delete her social media apps for a week. Read on for more…
