Actor Ananya Panday, who has to fight the ‘star kid’ tag ever since she made her debut, has had her own fair share of struggles. The actor recently recalled seeing her father, actor Chunky Panday, sitting at home during a tough phase when he didn’t have much work. Chunky revealed that he didn’t want to invite his daughter to the sets of his films, as he was going through a difficult time professionally. In a chat with her on the We Are Yuvaa YouTube channel, Ananya and Chunky talked about the time when he was broke and had to move to Bangladesh to find work.
He shared that he never called his daughter to his film’s sets because he had hit rock-bottom. “Why you never came on set was because when your mum and I got married, I was in that low phase. I had just returned from Bangladesh and was trying to get work for myself. I never got into that thing of calling you on the set or mom on the set, and it just stayed that way,” he said.
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In the ’90s, people stopped approaching Chunky for lead roles, and he eventually pivoted to character roles. Ananya asked if he ever felt like he’d reached the end. He answered, “Yes, of course, the end means musical chairs were happening and when the music stops, you don’t have a seat. Right after Aankhen, I actually had no work. The only film I got after that was Teesra Kaun. It completely dried up after that. So, I landed up going to Bangladesh and doing movies there. Luckily, those worked. I kind of made that my home for four-five years.
Chunky admitted that it was a “scary” time. “I didn’t stop working, I opened an events company there and started doing events. I started dealing in land, buying properties. Imagine going house to house, trying to do things. I kept my ego inside and said that I need to survive. So, I learnt a lot during this process. I have been flat broke,” he said.
Chunky further added, “I didn’t want to take money from my parents. If you are a guy and you started off your career, you can’t go back and ask for money. I have never let them know this was happening, and even never let my wife know how much I have or don’t have.”
Recently, in an interview on Raj Shamani’s podcast, Ananya shared her own perspective on her dad’s troubles. “My dad was having a low phase when I was born. He was a huge actor in the ’80s and ’90s, but after that, he started doing different kinds of work. There were long periods of time when he wasn’t working. I would see him sitting at home. When I was a child, I must’ve been to a film set only once or twice with him. It wasn’t like he was very busy and doing lots of work. People weren’t standing outside our house to get a glimpse of him, I didn’t grow up seeing that,” she said.
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