Ananya Panday

Ananya Panday

Ananya Panday (born 30 October 1998) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. The daughter of actor Chunky Pandey, she ventured into acting in 2019 with leading roles in the teen film Student of the Year 2 and the comedy Pati Patni Aur Woh. For the former film, she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.

Early life

Panday was born to actor Chunky Pandey on 30 October 1998.[1][2][3] She graduated from Dhirubhai Ambani International School in 2017.[4] She participated in Vanity Fair's Le Bal des débutantes event in Paris in 2017.[5][6]

Acting career

Panday made her acting debut in 2019 with the teen film Student of the Year 2, co-starring Tiger Shroff and Tara Sutaria, which was produced by Dharma Productions.[7] Writing for Scroll.in, Nandini Ramnath felt that Panday showed potential in an unremarkable film.[8] The film underperformed at the box office.[9] Panday next starred in Pati Patni Aur Woh (2019), a remake of the 1978 film of the same name, alongside Kartik Aaryan and Bhumi Pednekar. She played a secretary who indulges in an affair with a married man, which was portrayed by Ranjeeta Kaur in the original.[10] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV wrote that "Panday is perfectly cast as the wide-eyed girl who sweeps the hero off his feet but holds her own ground".[11] With a worldwide gross of ₹1.15 billion (US$16 million), it emerged as a commercial success.[12][13] Panday won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her performance in Student of the Year 2.[14]

Panday will next star in the action film Khaali Peeli, co-starring Ishaan Khatter, and in Shakun Batra's as-yet untitled romantic drama, alongside Deepika Padukone and Siddhant Chaturvedi.[15][16] She will also team with Vijay Deverakonda for Puri Jagannadh's as-yet untitled multilingual film.[17]

Other work

In 2019, Panday launched an initiative named So Positive to create awareness about social media bullying, prevent negativity and build a positive community.[18] For her work, Vogue India awarded her with the Youth Influencer Of The Year award at the 2019 Vogue Women of the Year Awards.[19] At the 2019 Economic Times Awards, the project was named Initiative of the Year.