THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
“I am happy to grow up, but I don’t want to lose my childish spirit or youthfulness.”
“My mom has a new rule for me…I have to pause for five seconds before responding to a question.”
I have just asked Ananya Panday if she ever feels the pressure to behave in a certain way, and now I am worried that this interview will be one with performative responses.
“…but clearly I am not following the five-second rule right now,” she concludes, with a laugh.
It is just after 8 p.m., and Ananya is on her way home from a 12-hour work shift. Before our phone call, the actor’s manager sent over a request: could we please restrict the interview to under an hour, in case Ananya is tired?
You must be very tired, I venture… “I’m fine!” Ananya insists, “And anyway, I get car-sick on long journeys, so the talking will distract me.”
The voice down the line has a giddy quality to it, and the words tumble out quickly. But there’s something else: an effervescence that will have you believe Ananya is permanently smiling. “I’m an excitable person,” Ananya reveals. “And I speak so fast that I jumble things up. Sometimes, things get lost along the way…”
“If I say something silly in an interview, I get trolled for it,” she continues. “And then I promise myself that I’ll never be so vocal again. I
