Ananya Was “Uncomfortable” Doing Vijay Deverakonda’s ‘Liger’? Chunky Panday’s Shocking Revelation!
Chunky Panday recently revealed that Ananya Panday was unsure about ‘Liger’ but he pushed her to do it.
Ananya Panday’s Bollywood journey has had its highs and lows. But her father and actor Chunky Panday just made a surprising confession about her 2022 film ‘Liger’. The Vijay Deverakonda-starrer, which bombed miserably at the box office, was not just a professional setback, but it was a project Ananya Panday was hesitant about from the start. According to Chunky Panday, Ananya felt too young and “uncomfortable” doing the film but went ahead anyway. The 2022 film marked Vijay Deverakonda’s Hindi debut.
Ananya Panday was 23 when she signed ‘Liger’. In an interview with Mashable India, Chunky Panday said that Ananya looked younger as she had a baby-face.
For the unversed, before ‘Liger’, Ananya had starred in four films – ‘Student of the Year 2’, ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh’, ‘Khaali Peeli’ and ‘Gehraaiyan’. However, none of them were mass entertainers.
In his interview with Mashable India, Chunky Panday recalled that Ananya was apprehensive about picking ‘Liger’. “When she asked me if she should do this film… she was thinking that she was too young for it. She said, ‘Papa, I am too young to do this.’ I said you do this; it’s a commercial, a big film but maybe she was right. She was too young to do it,” he said.
He further said, “She was uncomfortable. She said maybe, I am too young for this. She was confused then.”
Chunky Panday added that he has now stopped giving career advice to Ananya. He also admitted that he was initially hesitant about her doing ‘Call Me Bae’, the Amazon Prime Video series that eventually earned her a Filmfare Award nomination.
“From that day on, I never put any pressure on her. Maybe I was wrong. I am old school. I don’t know anything else. If she had asked me, ‘Papa, should I do Bae?’ I would have said no,” the actor said. Clearly, Ananya Panday’s instincts worked in her favour this time!
Directed by Puri Jagannadh, ‘Liger’ was meant to be a grand Bollywood-Tollywood crossover. It was shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu, with Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya as the leads. The film also starred Ramya Krishnan, Ronit Roy, and even featured a cameo by boxing legend Mike Tyson.
However, the film turned out to be one of the biggest disasters of 2022. Made on a massive budget of Rs 125 crore, ‘Liger’ managed to collect only Rs 60 crore worldwide.
Despite the failure of ‘Liger’, Ananya has managed to turn things around. She recently received rave reviews for her performance in Netflix’s ‘CTRL’ and Amazon Prime Videos’ ‘Call Me Bae’.
Up next, she will be seen in ‘Kesari Chapter 2’, starring alongside Akshay Kumar and R Madhavan.
