Recently, film critic Rajeev Masand had an interview with the actors who recently started their journey in Bollywood and made their debut last year, i.e., in 2019 only.
Rajeev Masand’s Newcomers Roundtable 2019 comprised Tara Sutaria (Student of the Year 2, Marjaavaan), Ananya Panday (Student of the Year 2, Pati Patni Aur Woh), Vishal Jethwa (Mardaani 2), Geetika Vidya Ohlyan (Soni), Siddhant Chaturvedi (Gully Boy), Saloni Batra (Soni), and Abhimanyu Dassani (Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota).
This entire interview seemed quite dull with repeated questions about nepotism, digital fame, etc. but a one-line answer given by Siddhant Chaturvedi made headlines and also made the hashtags viral on social media handles.
Here we are talking about one of the segments where the host asked Ananya if it was easy for star kids to crack their Bollywood debut. On this, the Pati Patni Aur Woh fame actress stated that how Chunky Pandey, her father, has “never worked in a Dharma film or been on Koffee With Karan.”
Ananya Panday said,
“When people hate on me for nepotism, I am not going to shy away from the fact that I am Chunky Pandey’s daughter. My father has really worked hard. When Student of the Year 2 got delayed by a year, my dad actually didn’t even congratulate me till the film released because that’s how fickle the industry is. That’s how dispensable people are. Anything can happen, it can get shelved. It can release after years and he knows that. Mine has been a lot of personal experience, I have seen my dad go through so many things that I don’t take anything too seriously. I overcompensate sometimes. I am so scared that people may say that ‘oh you are taking things too lightly’ so I will come extra early to places. I am so happy that I have this chance.”
She added,
“I have always wanted to be an actor. Just because my dad’s an actor, I will never say no to an opportunity to act. My dad has never been in a Dharma film. He never went on Koffee With Karan. So it’s not as easy as people say. Everyone has their own journey and their own struggle.”
However, on this, Siddhant Chaturvedi interrupted Ananya Panday and said,
“Everyone has their own struggle. The only difference is ‘jahan humare sapne poore hote hain, wahan inka struggle shuru hota hai (their struggle begins where our dreams are fulfilled).”
Perhaps the weirdest thing was not Panday defending nepotism, but that how the rest of the table, except Siddhant, agreed with her.
We have seen some of them were a bit skeptical like Geetika Vidya Ohlyan (Soni), but many of them, especially Saloni Batra, vehemently agreed to Panday’s words. Batra made it seem like star kids were perhaps the most discriminated against people, who were the actual victim in this whole scenario.
Another interesting subject of the interview was how Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, a new actor who made her debut with the movie ‘Soni,’ made a strong statement with just her hands.
Ohlyan had written the words “Unnao,” “Jamia,” and “CAA” on her hands along with a vertical line of the Hakenkreuz (the Nazi symbol).
When most actors are silent on these topics, she commented on how she wishes that the Unnao victim gets justice and even brought up the topic of peace.
She said,
“I hope the victim gets… like the Unnao verdict is today… and I hope we don’t get disappointed more, and times improve and I hope we are kinder towards each other.”
Watch the Whole Interview Here:
