Born as Suyash Panday on September 26, 1962, in Bombay, this actor faced his share of struggles. Despite being the son of renowned heart surgeon Sharad Panday and physician Snehlata Panday, he worked as a part-time car dealer.
We are talking about Chunky Panday, who may not be a top actor in India but is considered a superstar in Bangladesh. Not many people know that Chunky Panday left Bollywood in the mid-1990s after experiencing several failures and went on to work in a foreign film industry, where he became a superstar.
Acting debut
Chunky Panday made his acting debut in the 1987 film Aag Hi Aag, which featured stars like Dharmendra, Moushumi Chatterjee, Shatrughan Sinha, Neelam, Richa Sharma, Shakti Kapoor, and Danny Denzongpa. He made a mark with his sincere performance. In the following years, Chunky took on supporting roles in various films, with one of his most notable appearances being in Tezaab.
After taking on supporting roles in films like Vishwatma, Aankhen, Khatron Ke Khiladi, and Zahreelay in the early 1990s, Chunky Panday decided to step back from Bollywood. He felt he was only being cast as the hero's brother, and his films weren't performing well at the box office. However, things turned around for him, and he went on to become a superstar in Bangladeshi cinema.
Was forced to work in Bangladesh
Chunky told IANS in an interview in 2018, "I was not getting the kind of work I wanted in Bollywood. A friend of mine forced me to do a film in Bangladesh. The money was good and I was desperately in need of money at that time, so I took the offer. It was a sort of stock gamble for me. But my first film became such a huge hit that I never looked back and worked there for five years until I got married in 1998."
Struggles
While talking about his struggles, Chunky said, "My struggling days were very different, there were no casting directors or digital media, so we had to wait in long queues in front of producers' offices. Getting to meet them and show them albums with photographs, we also had to dance in front of them and enact scenes from popular films."
He said, "It was not easy, but it was fun. Well, those were my struggling days. I was a part-time hustler and part-time car dealer, so I used to get the chance to drive those cars around. Every day, I was in a different car, visiting producers' offices."
When Divya Bharti refused to work with Chunky Panday
Film producer Pahlaj Nihalani once recalled how Divya Bharti threw a tantrum over being cast opposite Chunky Panday in the 1993 film Aankhen. While speaking to Bollywood Thikana, he said, "Divya (Bharti), Pooja Bhatt and Juhi Chawla were supposed to do the film originally. I decided that Divya should be paired with Chunky and Ritu Shivpuri should be opposite Govinda. When David told her this, she was hassled. She called me up, and began threatening to do things. She threw a big tantrum, and summoned me. I went to meet her, and she said, ‘I’ve heard that I’m opposite Chunky?’ I said yes. She refused to do the film.”
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