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‘I’m just trying to keep my head down and hope people like my work.’
IMAGE: Ananya Panday. Photograph: Kind courtesy Amazon Prime Video/Instagram
Ananya Panday feels her OTT debut series em>Call Me Bae, is inspired by the many women-led comedy films, including Alicia Silverstone’s Clueless and Sonam Kapoor’s Aisha, which she grew up watching.
“It’s an amalgamation of all these chick flick kind of movies that I loved growing up. And then there was obviously Poo, who was iconic. I literally dressed up as Poo two years ago… I have all her quotes on my mirror and everything, so she’s really left an imprint on me,” Ananya says, referring to Kareena Kapoor’s character of Pooja Sharma, popularly called Poo, from 2001’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
“If Rohan and Pooja (Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor’s characters from K3G) would have had to have had a baby girl, she would be Bae. I’m just talking because she really is a glorious Gen Z 2.0 derivative of Poo. It’s like where Poo ends, Bae takes off,” says Karan Johar, who serves as an executive producer on the show.
“That’s the best way that I can describe her because even when you saw the character of Poo, it started with all the fun and games and then, she contributes to the emotional gravitas of the ongoings in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham,” he adds.
“It’s like a mix of Schitt’s Creek, Clueless, Aisha, Nancy Drew…” Ananya continues.
“I don’t think we’re really getting to watch (such films and series) right now. It’s the kind of show I love to watch. It’s very light, young adult, happy and fun. Even though Bae has a bit of all these characters (in her), she is fully her own person,” she adds.
IMAGE: Ananya Panday in Call Me Bae.
Directed by Collin D’Cunha and created by Ishita Moitra, Call Me Bae sees Bella Chowdhary aka Bae leading a privileged life in New Delhi before she is disowned by her family.
She then moves to Mumbai, where she becomes a journalist to sustain herself. In the process, she forms unexpected friendships, alliances and faces many challenges.
Ananya, also known for starring in movies like Student of the Year 2, Gehraiyaan and Dream Girl 2, said Bae was the most fun yet challenging role of her career.
“It’s the first time that I’m doing a long format series, and the advantage of that is that you get to go into every character. With films, you only have a couple of scenes. You can’t really build up a backstory that much. But with a long format, you get to do that,” she said, praising Karan Johar and D’Cunha as well as the show’s team for helping her out during the shooting.
“Everything that I’ve done in the show is thanks to them. The crew, the dialogues, the way it (show) is written. It was just so much fun,” she adds.
IMAGE: Ananya Panday in Call Me Bae.
The show’s trailer closes with a conversation between Bae and a security guard which is a hat-tip to Ananya’s viral interview moment with her Gehraiyaan co-star Siddhant Chaturvedi during a roundtable interview a few years ago where he talked about the struggles of an outsider.
During that interview, Ananya — actor Chunky Pandey’s daughter — had equated success in the industry to Koffee With Karan appearances and Chaturvedi had responded with a comment that instantly went viral.
Asked about referencing the moment in Call Me Bae, Ananya said they have ‘kind of owned up to it’.
“I said it like five years ago. I really struggled answering this question and honestly, I am done with that. I’m just trying to keep my head down and hope people like my work. And there is no struggle, I’m doing fine,” she says.
IMAGE: Ananya Panday with mentor Karan Johar. Photograph: Kind courtesy Ananya Panday/Instagram
Karan Johar, who launched Ananya in his 2017 production Student of the Year 2, said it is the actor’s best work so far.
“I would go as far as saying that you have seen her in a lot of work and she has been growing from strength to strength. But this is by far her best work and will define her in the world of entertainment,” Karan says.
Call Me Bae also features Vir Das, Gurfateh Pirzada, Varun Sood, Vihaan Samat, Muskkaan Jaferi, Niharika Lyra Dutt, Lisa Mishra and Mini Mathur and will begin streaming on Amazon Prime Video from September 6.
