Ananya Panday on Liger: ‘It’s a massy film which all Indians can relate to’

Ananya Panday may have completed just three years in her film career but in this short journey the talented new-age actor has added spark to every story with her performance. She has evolved as an artiste with each release of hers, be it her debut vehicle Student of the Year 2, or romantic comedy Pati Patni Aur Woh, or her last outing Gehraiyaan, a complex modern relationship drama alongside Deepika Padukone. Now she is gearing up for the release of her first masala entertainer Liger in which she plays – in her own words -- “a super confident girl, a drama queen and a huge trouble maker”. “Liger is a fun film. She is that super fiery character who is very pivotal to the plot of the film. She will do anything for love, so there is a lot to her but I can’t say too much because that will give away the story,” says Panday.

However, it wasn’t easy for the actress to portray a ‘massy’ character even as she has grown watching mass entertainers for a simple reason that such films require a bit of over-the-top, exaggerated facial expressions and dialogue delivery. “I found it difficult in terms of breaking my inhibitions. I have always loved watching these kinds of masala films growing up. My dad has been part of so many massy films and he was one of the first few people who told me that you have to do this film because this is a brand of cinema that he loves doing and he loves watching. But I am very new to this and when you are making certain facial expressions and you are saying your dialogues you wonder 'how am I looking, how do I sound' and the most important thing for me was to break those inhibitions, to not be scared of judgment and just let go and that is something I will take away from this film,” says Panday.

Meanwhile, the unprecedented craze for her co-star and southern sensation Vijay Deverakonda left Panday shocked initially when she began the film promotions. She says that she had never seen this kind of euphoria and humongous crowd for an actor. In fact, a few times both the lead actors had to leave the event before things went out of control. Many equated this to Devarakonda's words sometime back when he said, ‘When I come I'll bring chaos', and the same thing was witnessed across the country. “There is so much frenzy over Vijay, it is quite crazy. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like that in person. Couple of times we had to leave the promotions midway, we were worried and more concerned about the safety and well-being of people. Some people fainted, hence we would leave so that they calmed down. But love is so overwhelming, I can’t even explain what it feels like to present the film and I am hoping that someday I will also get so many fans pan India. It is really my dream after this film,” says Panday while dismissing rumours about her being intimidated by Deverakonda’s presence.

“I don’t know why people feel this way. Vijay is so chilled out; he is so helpful and kind. He has held my hand through the process. He has a very calming effect. He is a thorough gentleman,” she says and even gives proof of their growing camaraderie as she points at her chappals as soon as there is a mention of Deverakonda’s style statement and his appearances at the film’s trailer launch and other events in chappals. “I just want to say that he is not the only one wearing chappals, I, too wear chappals all the time and this is my style statement,” she laughs-out-loud adding, “Vijay goes with the vibes, he wears whatever he is feeling at that moment besides I love his simplicity and his calming energy.”

With South cinema ruling the roost and several South actors making nationwide impact through their films and collaborations, Liger, too, stands the chance of capturing the nation which is exciting for both Panday and Devarakonda as they eye pan-India fame. “Yes, there is a lot of excitement about the film being Pan-India and catering to a different audience. As actors it is the best part when our films, our stories, our characters reach the widest possible audience and this film being a Pan-India film we are hoping it penetrates and reaches everyone. It is a massy film but the crux of it has a very high emotional value and we as Indians, as humans will relate to the content of the film. It is my debut in four different languages but I see it as an Indian film,” says Panday.

While there have been reports of Panday collaborating with Ayushmann Khurrana on Dream Girl sequel, the actress is tight-lipped about the project. But the actress does confirm that she has been approached by a few more South directors. “There have been quite a few things but I am waiting for Liger to come out first before I take any decision,” says Panday, whose next is Excel Entertainment-backed Kho Gaye Hum Kahan featuring her alongside Siddhant Chaturvedi and The White Tiger breakout star Adarsh Gourav. “My approach has been to keep doing roles that are different from each other. Also, I want to keep it as different from my real life as possible. I don’t want to bore myself or my audience. I don’t want anyone to put me in a box. I am so new, I have not figured out exactly what I want to do and how I want to do it. I haven’t fixed my process yet but there are so many people that I want to work with,” she says.

Even though the perception is that people saw the actor in her with Gehraiyaan, Panday says that the commercial mainstream Liger is equally challenging and that she wants to do a good mix of both kinds of cinema. “As an artist I want to creatively satisfy that fire in me of wanting to prove and better myself with every film but at the same time I also want that pan India love, reach as many people as possible and have that validation of box office. Even in a masala entertainer like Liger, I am able to learn something and better myself. I am able to break that fear and inhibitions which would not happen with any other film,” says Panday, adding that she would love to do an action film someday. “When I was in school I did taekwondo and I was a green belt. It may be hard to believe (laughs) but I stopped doing it after I was 13. I don’t have any action sequence in Liger but I am hoping that I get to do an out-and-out action film. I will have to train really very hard for it,” she says.

And when the actress is asked about the challenge of chasing a breakthrough role of her career, she is quick to respond, “I still have a long way to go for that and I don’t want to think of it as breakthrough because we have often seen that magic happens when you don’t know actually when and how it is going to happen. The most memorable characters have happened at the last minute and have been created on set, or maybe someone was not supposed to do it and they ended up doing it last minute. If I plan it, it will never happen.”

Panday is no stranger to being trolled on the Internet and she recently opened up about it on Koffee with Karan regarding how it affects her mental health. While she said she is just a 22-year-old trying to do her job, she wondered what wrong she has done for people to be so harsh to her. Has that feeling started getting resolved inside her? “No, I don’t think it will ever get resolved. There are days where something really affects me and I feel really bad. Even today when I read something …But I have moments where I get over it and I feel strong and I feel I can deal with it. I am trying to focus more on improving as an actor and getting better so that I don’t give people any chance to doubt my talent,” she says.

Recently, Panday’s take on Arjun Reddy impressed the Internet. When Karan Johar on his show asked her if she was “one of the girls" who loved Arjun Reddy, a character played by Devarakonda in the titular film which was remade as Kabir Singh in Hindi, her answer was deemed to be refreshingly “mature" by Twitter users. Panday said that she liked the songs in the film but she wouldn’t be okay with a relationship like the one portrayed in the film, either for herself or for her friends. She also spoke about how many people watch something on screen and start to believe that “it’s okay to start behaving like that in real life". She furthers, “I don’t think I judged Vijay for playing that character. I feel that as actors we are not what we portray on screen. Our values and our viewpoints of the world don’t have to entirely match the characters we play on screen. And when I met Vijay he was extremely kind, chivalrous and helpful towards me, so I didn’t really see that connection nor have that thought at all. Also, in terms of the opinion that I had on the film he has been very accepting of that. He likes having debates and conversations going. I never felt the conflict in any way.”

While Panday’s mother helps her in selecting scripts, she always works towards following her actor-father Chunky Panday's advice on winning the audience's love. “My mom reads all my scripts and my dad gets too excited about my fans sending him videos every day. He always tells me that love of the audience is paramount and that is something I should work towards to be accepted and loved,” she says. Lastly, any jitters about the box office? “I am nervous but also very excited. As actors we can’t do much beyond giving our best and making the best film possible. Vijay is very sure that Liger is going to be a blockbuster, so I am also excited and going with the spirit in him,” she signs off.

Seema Sinha is a Mumbai-based mainstream entertainment journalist who has been covering Bollywood and television industry for over two decades. Her forte is candid tell-all interviews, news reporting and newsbreaks, investigative journalism and more. She believes in dismissing what is gossipy, casual, frivolous and fluff.

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