In Indian cinema, the term “star kid” has always carried a weighty connotation. It often evokes images of privilege, access, and unearned opportunities. For Ananya Panday, the daughter of actor Chunky Panday and Bhavana Pandey, this label has become a topic of public discourse. In a recent podcast conversation with YouTuber Raj Shamani, the actor opened up about how the term turned into a negative epithet rather than a neutral fact.
Ananya, who debuted with Student of the Year 2 under Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, has faced her fair share of criticism, often being dismissed as a product of nepotism. However, her journey in the industry tells a more nuanced story. With films like Kho Gaye Hum Kahan and Dream Girl 2, she has been working to prove her mettle beyond the shadow of her family name.
Ananya Panday says people have made Star Kid a bad word, and that’s not nice.
Ananya’s take on the term “star kid” is refreshingly candid. “People have made it a bad word. I don’t think it’s a bad word,” she stated during Raj Shammi’s podcast. She highlighted how audiences have become hyper-aware of an actor’s lineage, often letting it cloud their judgment of her or her potential. “When you’re watching something on screen, you’re like, ‘Oh, she’s this star’s daughter.’ It doesn’t need to be like that,” she explained.
“People should just go in and think what they have to. And they do think what they have to. But I think it’s become very divided, like ye insider hai, ye outsider (this one’s an insider, that one an outsider). … The audience has given us all so much. There are people from a film family who are thriving, and there are people who are not from the film family thriving even more,” Panday continued.
Lastly, the actress also reveals that the industry rewards hard work. She gave the example of Shah Rukh Khan and how he came outside of Bollywood and conquered it. “The biggest star in our country. He’s not from a film family. So I think it’s more about the person,” Panday about Shah Rukh Khan. In an industry as dynamic as Bollywood, labels like “star kid” or “outsider” may fail to capture the complex interplay of talent, opportunity, and audience acceptance. As Ananya aptly points out, the industry is a space where both legacies and self-made journeys coexist and thrive.
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