Ananya Panday is currently basking in the success of her web series debut Call Me Bae. The coming-of-age dramedy premiered on Amazon Prime Video earlier this month and was lapped up by audiences and critics alike. The actress speaks to DNA about the show’s distinct tone, doing comedy for the first time, and if she has a niche (or type) as an urban girl on screen.
Though Ananya has been part of comedies before, she has never been active in doing comedy on screen before Call Me Bae, something she acknowledges. “I had never explored comedy as a genre. Even though I had done Pati Patni Aur Woh and Dream Girl 2 but I wasn’t the one doing comedy there. I was the one reacting to situations. But in this, I got to find my comic timing as well,” she says.
Calling the experience both fun and challenging, Ananya says she had to fight her fear and self-consciousness while doing comedy. She tells us, “Something that I noticed was that I was very self-conscious. ‘Should I make so many expressions?’ ‘Is it too much?’ But once you break that barrier and just go for it, then you can always adjust. But you have to break past that fear a little bit and go all out.”
Call Me Bae has been compared to international shows like Emily In Paris and Schitt’s Creek for its take on a riches-to-rags story. But Ananya says the comparisons are just about the similar genre. “This is a genre,” she argues, adding, “There is a space for Clueless to exist but also Legally Blonde and also Aisha. There have been so many of these. We are not claiming to be the first people to do this because this is a genre that has existed for some time. We have seen rags to riches and riches to rags also. I feel like that sometimes, this kind of content coming from India should be a thing of, if not pride then happiness. You can culturally contextualise it. However much you watch a Schitt’s Creek, it’s still different when a girl from Delhi is shifting to Mumbai. You get all those references.”
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The show has several meta references to Bollywood, the Ambani wedding, and also features cameos from several celebs. The one fourth-wall-breaking reference that many found funny was a throwback to a line on struggle that has its roots in a round table that Ananya herself was a part of a few years ago. Talking about how the show makes light of a moment from pop culture that she was in, the actress says, “I found it very tongue and cheek and fascinating. It’s not unreal that Bella would be in a situation like that. It felt correct to the character and didn’t feel that it has been done for some sensational purpose. That’s the thing with the show that it is very self aware. Even in the trailer, the words ‘privilege’ and ‘wealth’ are highlighted. That was the best part of the show that everything was a take on something, our take on something.”
Between Gehraiyaan, Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, and now Call Me Bae, Ananya is making a habit of playing the urban girl. Some believe that this is her niche. But the actress does not worry about being typecast now, even if she did at one point. “I used to over think that a lot, whether I have been put into a box and is this all that I can do. But I have come to realise that there is no problem with that because there are so many versions (of an urban girl) within that that you can play. Something is working for you and people are liking that for you and within that, you are growing too, then there is no reason to fight it or move to something drastically different to shock people. That’s the wrong reason to do something,” says Ananya.
Call Me Bae, created by Ishita Moitra and directed by Colin D’Cunha, also stars Vir Das, Gurfateh Pirzada, Varun Sood, Vihaan Samat, Muskkaan Jaferi, Niharika Lyra Dutt, Lisa Mishra, and Mini Mathur. It is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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