Ananya Panday fascinated by Princess Diana's stories but wishes to play these Bollywood yesteryear actresses instead

With the likes of CTRL and Call Me Bae ruling over OTT in the Hindi language in 2024, Ananya Panday became a force to be reckoned with. Her inspiration, in a sense, was seeing the various shades of Princess Diana on the medium. As an actor though, she is more interested in playing a yesteryear Bollywood actress (despite lacking the confidence to do so at this point of time). Here are some actresses she wishes to see/portray on-screen...

Ananya Panday's wishlist of portraying yesteryear Bollywood actresses on-screen

Ananya Panday expressed her desire to work on a biopic on yesteryear Bollywood actresses. She told Vogue India that she might want to portray actors from the 50s and 60s, including Meena Kumari, Madhubala and Waheeda Rahman. However, when director Shakun Batra (he directed her in Gehraiyaan) asked her, she seemed underconfident about picking up the roles. "I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do it," she said before naming the actors.

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Ananya Panday inspired by Princess Diana's stories on OTT

Princess Diana has been a favourite topic whether on TV or OTT, with many picking up the role and portraying it in their own way. There's always a newer story unfolding right around the corner. Ananya compares The Crown and Spencer telling the tale as she mentions, "It’s fascinating how there are multiple ways in which you can portray one character with their shades, opinions and personalities feeding off each other on screen."

Kareena Kapoor Khan plays Ananya Panday's desi inspiration

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Like most female actors, including the aspiring ones, Kareena Kapoor Khan's roles serve as a template even for Ananya Panday. She sees Poo from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and Geet from Jab We Met, apart from Chameli, as closest inspirations and mentions, "I could probably not even give 0.1 per cent of what Kareena [Kapoor Khan] did with either of those characters, but they would be so much fun." The actress further mentions how Konkona Sen Sharma in Luck By Chance and Deepika Padukone in Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani also serve an inspiration and if possible, she would like to recreate them at some point of time.

On the work front, Ananya is expected to be seen in Kesari 2 next.