Chunky Panday on Ananya Panday Being Targeted Online: We Have to Just Take It in Our Stride

“If someone does say something, we have to just take it in our stride. What else can we do? There’s no other solution to this. Being an actor, celebrity or a film star, it has some plus points and some minus points. Right now, people have gone a little too sensitive because of the whole situation (coronavirus pandemic) we are in right now. It has made people anxious and insecure. It has done that to me. I’m 57 and I wouldn’t say that I’ve been through the greatest of career but a career of 33 years and if I can have these emotions then I can imagine what younger people must be going through. These are not ordinary times. So, one has to have a little empathy. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. I actually don’t give it too much energy myself because I feel in times like these you need to engage in things that keep you happy,” said Chunky.

Netizens and a number of celebrities have pointed out that while insiders get “easy access” to the industry, the outsiders have to struggle to even get a foothold in, thereby, prompting a raging debate on insider versus outsider.

To which, Chunky said, “This has always happened. This is nothing new. Rivalries have been happening since forever. Things have been said about each other. If you pick up a 50-year-old magazine, you’d find the same dialogues there. All these debates have happened before also in many ways. Right now, it’s more because people have nothing else to watch because of such extraordinary times. People are just glued to their television sets. There’s no end to this.”

When asked about the intense social media scrutiny that actors are often subjected to, Chunky said, “Social media is a tool and you need to use it as a tool. You can’t get personal about it because you are using it to put your pictures out there. Basically we used to have publicists and PRs, but today you don’t need all that. Social media is not a part of your body. It’s just the way you look at it. You can’t get emotional about it. It’s a nice way to communicate with people and you have to keep it to that. And, it’s all in your control what you put out.”