Ananya Panday (born 30 October 1998) is an Indian actress who primarily works in
Hindi films
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Hollywood". The industry, producing films in th ...
. Born to actor
Chunky Panday
Suyash Panday (born 26 September 1962), better known by his stage name Chunky Panday, is an Indian actor who works in Hindi-language films.
Early life
Chunky Panday was born as Suyash Panday on 26 September 1962 in Bombay, to Sharad Panday ...
, she began her acting career in 2019 with roles in the romantic comedies ''
Student of the Year 2'' and ''
Pati Patni Aur Woh''. These performances earned her the
Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. In 2025, she was featured in ''
Forbes Asia
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The c ...
''
's
30 Under 30 list.
Panday's two subsequent theatrical releases were poorly received, but she had a commercial success with a brief role in the comedy ''
Dream Girl 2'' (2023). On streaming, her performances as young women navigating the perils of urban life and technology in the drama films ''
Gehraiyaan'' (2022) and ''
Kho Gaye Hum Kahan'' (2023), the thriller film ''
CTRL'' (2024), the comedy series ''
Call Me Bae'' (2024) were well-received. She earned further praise for her role as a lawyer in the courtroom drama ''
Kesari Chapter 2'' (2025).
Early life and family
Panday was born on 30 October 1998 to actor
Chunky Panday
Suyash Panday (born 26 September 1962), better known by his stage name Chunky Panday, is an Indian actor who works in Hindi-language films.
Early life
Chunky Panday was born as Suyash Panday on 26 September 1962 in Bombay, to Sharad Panday ...
and costume designer Bhavana Pandey (née Khosla) in
Mumbai
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
,
Maharashtra
Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...
. Her mother is
Punjabi while her father is part Punjabi. She has a younger sister named Rysa. Her grandfather
Sharad Panday, was an Indian
heart surgeon. Her uncle
Chikki Panday
Aloke Sharad Panday (born 13 November 1966), better known as Chikki Panday, is an Indian businessman based in Mumbai. He, along with Ranjeet Deshmukh, co-founded the 'Akshara Foundation of Arts & Learning' which works towards providing educat ...
is a businessperson and her aunt
Deanne Pandey
Deanne Panday (born 10 December 1968) is an Indian wellness coach and author.
Early life
Deanne was born on 10 December 1968 to a Scottish and Nepalese father and a Luso-Indian mother. After completing her education as a trained commerci ...
is a wellness coach, and their children,
Alanna Pandey is a
Youtuber
A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...
, and Ahaan Panday is an actor. She has described her childhood as "very privileged and cushioned", and has said that she aspired to be an actress from a young age.
Pandey studied at
Dhirubhai Ambani International School until 2017. She participated in ''
Vanity Fair''s Le
Bal des débutantes event in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 2017. When asked if she missed out on higher education, Panday described film sets as her film school.
Career
Early work (2019–2022)

Panday made her acting debut in 2019 with the teen film ''
Student of the Year 2'', co-starring
Tiger Shroff and
Tara Sutaria, which was produced by
Karan Johar
Karan Yash Johar (born Rahul Kumar Johar; 25 May 1972), often informally referred to as KJo, is an Indian filmmaker, producer and television personality who primarily works in Hindi cinema. He has launched the careers of several successful ac ...
's studio
Dharma Productions. Writing for
Scroll.in, Nandini Ramnath felt that Panday showed potential in an unremarkable film. The film did not perform well at the box-office. Panday next starred in ''
Pati Patni Aur Woh'' (2019), a remake of the 1978 film of
the same name, alongside
Kartik Aaryan and
Bhumi Pednekar. She played a secretary who indulges in an affair with a married man, which was portrayed by
Ranjeeta Kaur in the original. ''
India Today
''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...
'' mentioned that Panday is "bland and boring with no spice." With a worldwide gross of , it emerged as a commercial success. Panday won the
Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her performance in both ''Student of the Year 2'' and ''Pati Patni Aur Woh''.
In 2020, Panday appeared in the action film ''
Khaali Peeli'', starring
Ishaan Khatter.
The film was released digitally on
Zee Plex
ZEE5 is an Indian on-demand Internet streaming media provider run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched in India on 14 February 2018 with content in 12 languages. The service has distributed a number of original programs, including ...
. She next appeared alongside
Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone (; born 5 January 1986) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Hindi films. She is India's highest-paid actress, as of 2023, and List of awards and nominations received by Deepika Padukone, her accolades include thre ...
,
Siddhant Chaturvedi
Siddhant Chaturvedi (born 29 April 1993) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. He starred as a teenage cricketer in the Amazon Prime Video series ''Inside Edge (TV series), Inside Edge'' from 2017 to 2019 and ventured into films with t ...
and
Dhairya Karwa in the 2022 romantic drama ''
Gehraiyaan'', which released on
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...
. Her performance was well-received,
with
Anna M. M. Vetticad from ''
Firstpost
Firstpost is an Indian news website owned by Network18 Group, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC TV18. It has posted misinformation on multiple occasions.
The Network 18 group was originally owned by Raghav Bahl. In January 2012, the gro ...
'' writing, "The surprise in this ensemble is Panday who brings a gravitas to Tia's confusion and innocence that makes you wonder why she chose to debut with the hollow gloss of ''Student of the Year 2''". Her final release of the year came with
Vijay Deverakonda in
Puri Jagannadh's action film ''
Liger
The liger is a hybrid (biology), hybrid offspring of a male lion (''Panthera leo'') and a tigress, or female tiger (''Panthera tigris''). The liger has parents in the same genus but of different species. The liger is distinct from the opposite ...
'', a bilingual production in Hindi and
Telugu.
Panday's father revealed that she was initially hesitant to accept the film, as she felt she was too young for the role, but he convinced her to take on the project. The film was a critical and commercial failure, with Panday's performance being panned.
Recognition in streaming projects (2023–present)
In the spiritual sequel ''
Dream Girl 2'' (2023), Panday played the brief role of the love interest of
Ayushmann Khurrana
Ayushmann Khurrana (born Nishant Khurrana; 14 September 1984) is an Indian actor and singer who works in Hindi films. Known for his portrayals of ordinary men often battling social norms, he is the recipient of several awards, including a Na ...
's character. ''
The Times of India
''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...
''s Dhaval Roy dismissed her role and accent. ''
The Indian Express
''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...
''
Shubhra Gupta concurred that Panday didn't "have much to do" but observed that she is "getting better when there’s not too much pressure on her to deliver". It emerged as
one of the year's highest-grossing Hindi films. She then starred in ''
Kho Gaye Hum Kahan'', a coming-of-age drama about the negative effects of social media, alongside Chaturvedi and
Adarsh Gourav.
Saibal Chatterjee of
NDTV
New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy.
NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...
wrote that she "does a fair enough job of a character stuck in a single-note loop", while Scroll.in's Udita Jhunjhunwala found her "highly convincing as the jilted obsessive stalker seeking social media validation". ''The Indian Express'' evaluated that her urban roles in ''Gehraiyaan'' and ''Kho Gaye Hum Kahan'' suited the actress better than the ones she performed in commercial cinema such as ''Dream Girl 2''. Panday was awarded a
Filmfare OTT Award for Best Actor in a Film – Critics (Female) for her performance in ''Kho Gaye Hum Kahan''.
In September 2024, she portrayed an ostracised fashion
influencer
A social media influencer, or simply influencer (also known as an online influencer), is a person who builds a grassroots online presence through engaging content such as photos, videos, and updates. This is done by using direct audience intera ...
in the Amazon Prime Video comedy series ''
Call Me Bae'', produced by Johar.
Panday expressed how her foray into the comedic genre was "challenging", and emphasised the difficulty in having to headline a project rather than play a "reacting" role to the lead star. The series had a mixed reception from critics, but her performance was better received.
Sukanya Verma
Sukanya Verma is an Indian journalist and film critic. She has been the principal movie reviewer with web portal '' Rediff.com''. She has written a number of columns as a freelance writer for ''The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English ...
of
Rediff.com praised her comic timing in a role that mirrored the actress' own privilege. ''
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...
'' Shilajit Mitra analysed that her privileged characters in ''Gehraiyaan'', ''Kho Gaye Hum Kahan'' and ''Call Me Bae'' were all "in her proximate wheelhouse". The following month, Panday starred in
Vikramaditya Motwane
Vikramaditya Motwane (born 6 December 1976) is an Indian filmmaker who works in Hindi films and series. His directorial debut '' Udaan'' (2010) was selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and als ...
's
screenlife thriller ''
CTRL'' for Netflix, which is about an influencer targeted by a malicious
AI app. Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in believed that after ''Kho Gaye Hum Kahan'', she was once again "wholly convincing" as a
Gen Z woman negatively affected by technology. Acknowledging it as her third consecutive urban-set, social media-centred project, Panday has expressed a desire for further career progression and to return to more commercial cinema.
Panday returned to commercial cinema in 2025 with Dharma Production's sequel ''
Kesari Chapter 2'', starring
Akshay Kumar
Akshay Hari Om Bhatia (born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia; 9 September 1967), known professionally as Akshay Kumar (), is an Indian actor and film producer working in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as "Khiladi Kumar", through his career span ...
as
C. Sankaran Nair. Set against the backdrop of the
Jallianwala Bagh massacre
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre (), also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April 1919. A large crowd had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, British India, during the annual Vaisakhi, Baisakhi fair to protest aga ...
in 1919, she portrayed a lawyer who assists Nair in his legal battle against the
British Raj
The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent,
*
* lasting from 1858 to 1947.
*
* It is also called Crown rule ...
. In preparation, she took dialect classes in Punjabi for over a year and shadowed female lawyers in practice. A critic for ''
Filmfare
''Filmfare'' is an Indian English-language fortnightly magazine published by Worldwide Media. Acknowledged as one of India's most popular entertainment magazines, it publishes pieces involving news, interviews, photos, videos, reviews, events, ...
'' wrote that Panday "surprises with her restraint and grace" in an against-type role. ''Kesari Chapter 2'' emerged as a moderate commercial success. She will next star opposite
Lakshya in the romance ''Chand Mera Dil''.
Media image

Panday has frequently combated negative attention and online trolling, for being a beneficiary of
nepotism
Nepotism is the act of granting an In-group favoritism, advantage, privilege, or position to Kinship, relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In ...
within the Hindi film industry.
She said, "It isn't as easy as people say it is. If you have access and don't have the talent to back it up, people won't invest their money in you. Having said that, I do believe nepotism exists and it exists in all industries, not just Bollywood." She received backlash for comments made during
CNN
Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
's 2019 Newcomers Roundtable, where she spoke about her struggles as a star kid, noting that her father had never been on Johar's talk show ''
Koffee with Karan'' as a sign of his limited success. Her remarks prompted a now-viral response from actor
Siddhant Chaturvedi
Siddhant Chaturvedi (born 29 April 1993) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. He starred as a teenage cricketer in the Amazon Prime Video series ''Inside Edge (TV series), Inside Edge'' from 2017 to 2019 and ventured into films with t ...
, in which he highlighted the disparity between insiders and outsiders in the film industry. ''
The Hollywood Reporter India'' reported that after the intense social media trolling she received for being a
nepo baby, "all the noise and early backlash faded once she proved herself with films like ''Gehraiyaan'' (2022) and ''CTRL'' (2024)". ''
The Print'' noted that she has carved a niche for herself as Bollywood’s
Gen Z star by portraying characters that resonate deeply with her generation.
In 2019, she launched an initiative named So Positive to create awareness about social media bullying, prevent negativity and build a positive community. At the
Economic Times Awards in 2019, the project was named Initiative of the Year.
Panday has featured in ''The Times of India'' "50 Most Desirable Women" list. She ranked 37th in 2019, and 31st in 2020. In 2025, ''
Forbes Asia
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The c ...
'' featured her in their
30 Under 30 list. The same year, ''
GQ India'' listed her among the nation's most influential young people. Panday is a celebrity endorser for several brands, such as
Puma,
Lakmé,
Maybelline
Maybelline New York (formerly The Maybelline Company and Mabelline and Co.), trading as and commonly known as simply Maybelline ( ), is an American multinational cosmetics, skin care, perfume, and personal care company, based in New York City. ...
,
TRESemmé,
Garnier,
Skechers,
Vega
Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, and ...
,
Esprit,
Fastrack,
Gillette
Gillette is an American brand of safety razors and other personal care products including shaving supplies, owned by the multi-national corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G). Based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, it was owned by The Gil ...
and
Timex. She is the brand ambassador for international brands like
Swarovski
Swarovski (, ) is an Austrian producer of glass based in Wattens, Tyrol. It was founded in 1895 by Daniel Swarovski.
The company is split into three major industry areas: the Swarovski Crystal Business, which primarily produces crystal glas ...
and
Jimmy Choo
Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat (born 15 November 1948) is a Malaysian fashion designer based in the United Kingdom. He co-founded Jimmy Choo Ltd, which became known for its handmade women's shoes.
Early life
Choo was born in 1948 in the Crown Colony ...
. In 2025, she was named the first Indian global ambassador for the luxury brand
Chanel
Chanel ( , ) is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by French brothers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, established in 2018 and headquarte ...
.
Filmography
Films
* ''All films are in Hindi unless otherwise noted.''
Television
Music video
Awards and nominations
References
External links
*
*
*
{{authority control
1998 births
Living people
Actresses from Mumbai
Indian film actresses
Indian web series actresses
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Actresses in Telugu cinema
Filmfare Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
21st-century Indian actresses
People of Punjabi descent