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Ananya will have time in her life to correct these mistakes: Chunky
Sangeeta Yadav
Ananya Panday became an overnight star all thanks to her grand Bollywood launch by Karan Johar last year. But recently, she became the butt of jokes after her take on nepotism in the industry and statement on her father Chunky Panday’s “struggle”. She was trolled for saying her father had it tough as he never featured in Johar’s films or his celebrity chat show. Clarifying, Chunky says, “She didn’t say anything derogatory. What she meant to say on nepotism was if my father had to recommend someone, he’d recommend himself first. And it would be wrong to say she is an actor as her father is one, for then she wouldn’t have come up with anything exceptional. Whatever she has achieved is on her own talent.”
Adding to the nepotism debate, the 57-year-old shares, “You just can’t pick up the phone and recommend someone. And one isn’t going to spend ₹20-30 crore on someone else’s child to make a film.”
As for Ananya being trolled at considering a chat show appearance as the barometer of success, Chunky says all such chat shows always feature the best of the best in the industry. “But one shouldn’t consider this as a barometer to one’s success. The only barometer for an actor is the movie he or she gets to work on,” he says.
But this isn’t the first time Ananya faced flak for taking her father’s name. “When she called me Tony Stark in one of her posts, she was trolled. She and I are both Tony Stark fans and she tells me ‘Dad, you look like Tony Stark’,” Chunky continues, “I too made a joke of it and sent her a message saying ‘Ananya stop name dropping me’ because every time she takes my name, she gets into trouble
But he feels this won’t affect her. “My daughter is still very young and she might have made a few mistakes, but she’ll have time to correct them. She was disturbed by the controversy about her college admission, so she started the So Positive initiative. I tell her to take these as compliments. Be happy you’re important to be talked about. As long as you know how you got a movie, no matter whoever tells you what, you know whatever people are shouting isn’t true,” he adds.