Ananya Panday: Let people keep guessing who I’m dating

Actor Ananya Panday remains tight-lipped about her relationship status while reflecting on her recent film setbacks. She expresses excitement for her upcoming projects, Dream Girl 2 and Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, and reveals her desire to take on action or thriller roles.

In the recent months, speculations about a budding romance between actor Ananya Panday and Aditya Roy Kapur have been making headlines. The duo intensified these rumours when they posed together at designer Manish Malhotra’s Diwali party last year, captivating everyone’s attention. However, Panday chooses to keep her relationship status under wraps.

Ananya Panday was at a Skechers event in Delhi recently

Without giving any clarification about her relationship status, Panday says, “It’s good to be curious, people should keep guessing who I’m dating.”

While the buzz around her personal life continues, Panday has faced some setbacks on the work front. Both her films -- Liger, starring Vijay Deverakonda, and Shakun Batra’s Gehraaiyan ( both 2022) -- failed to gather a significant positive response. Reflecting on these challenges, Panday reveals that she has learnt valuable lessons from these past projects that didn’t meet expectations of many.

“No matter how cliche it sounds, its about the journey and its not about the destination. My lessons are, not giving up and not thinking too much about the outcome but living in that moment and giving it your all,” she says.

The 24-year-old feels that when you sign a film, there are a lot of possibilities that can happen, but “you give everything” to the project. She adds, “We (people working on the sets) know how hard it is to make a movie or a show. We really give it our all, we give it our best, and sometimes that doesn’t work out, but that’s okay. That shouldn’t let you down and you should take whatever you’ve learnt from that and use it in your next film.”

Looking ahead, Panday expresses enthusiasm for her upcoming film, Dream Girl 2, alongside Ayushmann Khurrana., saying, “My character is super bubbly and fun. I have a very important role in what the outcome of the film is. Everything is sort of happening around my character. I don’t want to say too much, because there are big surprises in that film.” Leaving fans more intrigued and excited, she adds, “Dream Girl 2 is going to be a full on masti laugh entertainer and it will leave you with a message, like the first one did as well.”

There is also Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, which Panday is eagerly anticipating. She tells us that her role is more similar to her own self than what she has played on screen. “She is a very real girl and has her own moments. It is very similar to how I am as a person and I know a lot of girls out there who will relate to it a lot.” The film would be her second one with actor Siddhant Chaturvedi after Gehraaiyan, who is one of her closest friends in the industry. “I can talk to him about a lot of things and he is a solid support. We don’t have to talk all the time, but there is a deep friendship that we found in each other. He is my buddy. I can joke, laugh, fight, everything with him. We are like Tom and Jerry,” shares Panday.

“Kho Gaye Hum Kahan is a movie that the young generation needs right now. It’s a film about friendship, how the times are now, and how relationships work in a digital age. It’s a movie which is needed right now by the younger generation,” she further adds, also emphasising that her effort is to always play a different character in every film.

“I don’t want to bore myself and the audience as well, so I am always striving to do something different.” The actor also expresses her desire to take up an action or thriller project, “because that is something I haven’t done yet,” she ends.