THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Actor Ananya Panday knows a thing or two about speaking her mind...and having to fight the battles that follow. In a very special conversation with Bazaar, she shares just why she is determined to look at the bright side and rise from every setback.

- NANDINI BHALLA

“My mom has a new rule for me...I have to pause for five seconds before responding to a question.” I have just asked Ananya Panday if she ever feels the pressure to behave in a certain way, and now I am worried that this interview will be one with performative responses.

“...but clearly I am not following the five-second rule right now,” she concludes, with a laugh. It is just after 8 p.m., and Ananya is on her way home from a 12-hour work shift. Before our phone call, the actor’s manager sent over a request: could we please restrict the interview to under an hour, in case Ananya is tired?

You must be very tired, I venture... “I’m fine!” Ananya insists, “And anyway, I get car-sick on long journeys, so the talking will distract me.”

The voice down the line has a giddy quality to it, and the words tumble out quickly. But there’s something else: an effervescence that will have you believe Ananya is permanently smiling. “I’m an excitable person,” Ananya reveals. “And I speak so fast that I jumble things up. Sometimes, things get lost along the way...”

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