Ananya Panday on Starring in Prime Video’s ‘Call Me Bae’ and Reaching 25 Million Instagram Followers: ‘With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility’
Ananya Panday couldn’t put down the script for “Call Me Bae” — literally. “I finished reading all eight episodes in one night because I couldn’t stop,” the Bollywood star told Variety about her new Prime Video series.
Written by Ishita Moitra, Samina Motlekar and Rohit Nair, “Call Me Bae” tells the story of Bae, a young woman who is downsized from heiress to hustler after a scandal. She learns that her most valuable assets are not her diamonds, but her street smarts and her style. Broke, but refusing to be broken, she navigates the newsrooms of Mumbai, finding beaus, sisterhood and her better self. Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta and Somen Mishra, as executive producers for their Dharmatic Entertainment, give a glitzy pedigree to the Hindi-language series.
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Directed by Collin D’Cunha, the script struck a chord with Panday from the start. “For me as an actor, the biggest telling sign is my first reaction and my first instinct after reading something — if I just feel like I have to be a part of the story,” she explained. The actor praised the script’s balance, noting, “There is a certain tone, in terms of the lightness and the humor, and the chick-flick quality that it has, but it also really says something at the end of it.”
The ensemble supporting cast includes Vir Das, Gurfateh Pirzada, Varun Sood, Vihaan Samat, Muskkaan Jaferi, Niharika Lyra Dutt, Lisa Mishra and Mini Mathur, while Panday plays the lead role, Bella ‘Bae’ Chowdhary. The series format allowed Panday to dive deep into her character. “It’s a huge responsibility, but it’s also a privilege for an actor to do that,” she said of leading the show.
Preparation for the role involved extensive table reads with the ensemble cast, which Panday described as crucial given the various character dynamics at play. She also worked closely with director D’Cunha to develop a strong backstory for Bella. “Colin and I [were] just sitting and trying to understand why is she the way she is,” Panday said. “She’s talking to her bags, and that may seem ridiculous on a first viewing, but then when you understand that, because she’s lonely and she’s not had someone who’s understood her growing up, then you kind of understand why she’s the way she is.”
Panday, daughter of actor Chunky Panday and costume designer Bhavna Pandey, has grown up in the limelight. However, she notes that her character Bella’s privileged background differs from her own experiences. “Even though Bella is privileged, she’s a different kind of privileged. She comes from an uber-rich family in Delhi, and even with her privilege, she has a lot of regressive and patriarchal traits,” Panday said. “In our family, that is not something that I’ve experienced, because my home has been extremely liberal in that sense, the way my dad has raised my sister and I.”
While “Call Me Bae” appears to draw inspiration from popular chick flicks, D’Cunha encouraged Panday to avoid imitating existing performances. “Rather than telling me to watch something, he told me to stay away from it more so that I don’t try to copy or imitate anything,” Panday revealed.
Panday made her Bollywood debut in 2019 with Karan Johar’s “Student of the Year 2,” alongside Tiger Shroff and Tara Sutaria. She followed this with roles in “Pati Patni Aur Woh” (2019) and “Khaali Peeli” (2020). Her performance in “Gehraiyaan” (2022), directed by Shakun Batra, earned critical acclaim, showcasing her ability to take on more complex, dramatic roles.
As a youth icon with millions of followers, Panday is mindful of her influence. “You know how Uncle Ben in ‘Spider-Man’ said ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’ I do feel that very often when you just see that number on Instagram,” she reflected. This awareness of social media’s impact was also central to her 2023 Netflix film “Kho Gaye Hum Kahan,” which explores the effects of digital life on young adults. “I try not to take it too seriously, but I also understand my responsibility at the end of the day.”
Panday hopes viewers will discover the layers beneath Bella’s surface. “People have already sort of formed assumptions about her from the trailer and the posters and whatever they’ve seen. But I feel like once they watch the show, they’ll discover that there’s so much more to her.”
“Call Me Bae” ends on a cliffhanger, leaving the door open for potential future seasons. “We aren’t done with the show and these characters, and we’re almost waiting to come back,” Panday said. “If the audience loves it enough, which hopefully they do, then we’ll be more than happy to come back.”
In addition to “Call Me Bae,” Panday stars in “CTRL,” a cyber thriller directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, set to premiere on Netflix on Oct. 4.
“Call Me Bae” streams on Prime Video from Sept. 6.
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