Three years after Liger (2022) bombed at the box office, Ananya Panday’s father, actor Chunky Panday, has revealed that she was hesitant about taking on the film. He shared that Ananya, who was 23 at the time, felt ‘too young’ for the role and was ‘uncomfortable’ doing it.
In an interview with Mashable India, Chunky recalled Ananya’s apprehensions before signing Liger, which marked Vijay Deverakonda’s Bollywood debut. “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 admitted.
Directed by Puri Jagannadh, Liger was simultaneously shot in Hindi and Telugu. It also starred Ramya Krishnan and Ronit Roy, with a special cameo from boxing legend Mike Tyson. Despite being made on a budget of ₹125 crore (approximately £12 million), the film earned only ₹60 crore (around £5.8 million), making it a major commercial failure.
Chunky also revealed that he has since stopped giving Ananya career advice. He admitted that he had reservations about her Amazon Prime Video series Call Me Bae, which later 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,” he added.
Ananya was last seen in the Netflix film CTRL, which earned her widespread praise. She will next appear in Kesari Chapter 2, starring alongside Akshay Kumar.
