This year, two newcomers delivered one of the biggest box office hits of 2025 with their debut film. Yes, we are talking about Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda’s romantic drama Saiyaara, helmed by filmmaker Mohit Suri. The film won hearts across the nation, and the craze in cinema halls was all over social media. Ahaan and Aneet became overnight sensations. But did you know Ahaan was very nervous about his debut film? He even spoke about the same to his actor cousin Ananya Panday.
Recently at the India Film Project (IFP) Festival, Ananya Panday opened up about the conversation she had with brother Ahaan Panday days before his debut film Saiyaara released. Ananya shared, “Even with my brother Ahaan’s film, with Saiyaara, before that, no one even knew that this film is coming out. No one knew Ahaan. No one knew Aneet. And I remember speaking to Ahaan like 3-4 days before the film was coming out. And he was just like ‘I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I hope people watch my film’. And I was like ‘Yeah, yeah, people will watch it’. But then it opened to ₹22 crores, like that’s insane! They made history. So time has changed so much. You really don’t know what is going to work, what’s not going to work. So you really have to just do your best as an actor. So for me, success would be just being the best possible actor that I can be.”
During the event, Ananya also revealed an acting tip that superstar Shah Rukh Khan shared with her for emotional scenes. Ananya shared. “Shah Rukh sir had actually told me once, he had said sometimes when, I could be saying this completely wrong but this is what I remember. He had once told me that when there’s a scene where someone dies or like, instead of thinking about that the person is dead, think about how life would be without that person. Like think about continuing life but that person is not there anymore. Or think about the happy moments with that person and that will make you sad.”
On the film front, Ananya will next be seen opposite Kartik Aaryan in Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri. The film is set to release on Christmas, December 25.
