Ananya Panday: I wanted to be a heroine, now I aspire to become a performer

As Dream Girl 2 inches towards the Rs 100-crore mark, Ananya Panday says she’s motivated to enhance her craft now more than ever before

The Panday household has a new favourite topic of discussion—box-office figures. “I am not going to lie, my mother, grandmother and I are looking at the numbers constantly,” giggles Ananya Panday, whose latest release, the Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer Dream Girl 2, has been inching towards the Rs 100 crore mark.

Panday admits that the validation that film’s success has brought her has been unmatched. In her four-year career that began with Student of the Year 2, this offering is commercially important. “I know that the kind of films that I have done before have been urban, and people have only seen me in a way that they associate my real-life personality to be. But, this is different. This film has already become my highest-grosser, so far. So, it’s exciting,” she says of Raj Shaandilyaa’s directorial venture.

While she was evidently elated to share the screen with revered actors, Panday admits that she was equally anxious about pulling off her character convincingly in their towering presence. “I was nervous about acting with these legends,” she says of the movie that also features Paresh Rawal, Vijay Raaz, and Abhishek Banerjee, who are known for their impeccable comic timing. 

“I didn’t want to ruin things and stick out like a sore thumb. It was important that people liked and accepted me. The film had a pan-India appeal. It’s a comedy, but that emotion of wanting to marry someone, and then trying to win over the father, is relatable to many people in our country. So, evidently, I was hopeful that this would become the film that would help me reach many households.”

While she is hungry to register similar box-office successes in the future, Panday says she is now more conscious about enhancing her craft than she was before. “Growing up, I wanted to be a star. I always wanted to be a film heroine and have my big Bollywood song and dance sequences. I wanted to be part of blockbuster films. I fell in love with acting after becoming an actor. When I began working, I realised there was so much more to do. I am gravitating towards being a better performer, improving myself and hoping that people see that side of me.” Panday has her maiden series, Call Me Bae, Zoya Akhtar’s production, Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, and Vikramaditya Motwane’s next in her kitty.

Rs 97cr
Approx collection of film till day 17 of its release

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