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2024 was the year Ananya Panday dominated our Insta feeds and TV screens, captivating us with her back-to-back releases. Surprisingly, we couldn't get enough!
There’s a certain prejudice that star kids face when they make their debut in the industry. With the infamous ‘nepotism’ debate that only seems to be rising like wildfire, as viewers, we cannot help but be on the fence about yet another nepo baby making a Bollywood debut. Ananya Panday was no exception either; from the very first day, she was looked at as the ditzy and dim witted star kid from Bandra. But instead of trying to go against that assumption, she embraced that perception of hers in 2024 rather cleverly! She let her work speak for itself and it only made her come out looking contrary to the preconceived notions about her.
It felt like, in 2024, she had a sudden switch where after spending a couple of years in the industry, she finally found her footing and realized what’s working for her. The past year, we saw her mainly play the urban girl next door character who is relatable to us and she felt like her real life self where she brought her A game to these characters. It all began with Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan which released at the end of 2023 but created so much stir online since the beginning of 2024.
In the film, she plays a girl in her 20s fully immersed in relationship politics. It ends with her only realizing what a red flag she was dating and how the ‘I have a better life than ex’ game on social media is really not needed. In a way, her character called out most of this generation. So many of us have been victims of the heartbreak and rebound game on social media. The drunken nights where we downloaded a dating app to just doom scroll or upload a risque picture on Instagram to show our ex what they’re missing out on. Panday aced the jealous ex-girlfriend part and it only made the audiences start looking at her with a different lens than they were used to.
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IMO, every good actor has a turning point in their career. That one project finds them out of nowhere and changes their life forever. Call Me Bae undoubtedly was that for Ananya Panday. India is known for its romantic dramas and action thrillers but there aren’t many teen drama/chick flicks we can bank on like they do in the west.
Call Me Bae was our very own version of Legally Blonde mixed with Sex and The City, and whoever thought of casting Ananya Panday clearly knew what they were doing. Bae aka Bella Chaudhary is exactly how most of this country perceives the rich kids of Bombay to be like. She fully owned this exaggerated version of Elle Woods and made it her own. Because it feels so close to her real life self, she was able to sell this part a lot better to the audiences and we fully bought it as well. Call Me Bae also released at a time when we were in dire need of casual content as compared to the plethora of horror comedies and serious biopics that were being released. It had romance, it had sex, it had a good riches to rags story which we love and it had extravagant, stunning fashion ensembles we so wanted to get our hands on. As Bella she adorned them all beautifully while also tugging at our hearts with her Bombay journey. Who would have ever thought that out of all her big screen hits, it would actually be an OTT project that would get her the recognition she deserved!
Just when we were reeling from the Call Me Bae effect, she gave another stellar performance in CTRL. In the film, Ananya Panday plays a couple vlogger and when she is cheated on by her boyfriend, things get sour real quick. Just like Call Me Bae, this character too hits close to home not only because her sister Alanna Panday and brother-in-law, Ivor are couple vloggers, but also because growing up, she wanted to be a Youtuber as well. But CTRL wasn’t as light-hearted as we thought it would be. Through Ananya’s character, Nella, it showed us how consumed and dependent we are on AI for everything these days. Gone are the good old days when we leaned on Arijit Singh’s Channa Mereya when we were heartbroken. In the era of AI, Nella turned to an app that could potentially erase all her digital memories with her boyfriend. Hence our dystopian future was played out right in front of us and some parts of it got too real or too creepy to digest.
Ever since then, she has proved herself as an A list actor and has become someone who the industry as a whole takes seriously. 2024 was the year she cracked what’s working for and what she’s best at. She has unintentionally become the voice of the Gen Z and some might even say that she seems to have a journey similar to Alia Bhatt. Only time will tell if she’ll have as much of a versatile filmography as her!
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