Mumbai: ‘Saiyaara’ actors Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda didn’t go on a promotional spree before their film’s release.
That didn’t matter as the film struck an emotional chord with the audience and turned out to be a massive hit.
In their first interview post the film’s success, Aneet and Ahaan shared their experience of shooting for their debut movie.
In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India, Ahaan revealed being wronged by some people.
“Have I felt wronged by people? Yes, I have. It wouldn’t be right for me to get personal about that though, but as an actor that’s where you take [inspiration] from. I would take a small moment and enlarge that for the character. I just kept putting myself into different things. There was that blind optimism, the first four-five years, where I was entirely delusional, and I think people around me could sense it,” he said.
“I would have to tell myself to [keep the faith] because things weren’t going the way I wanted them to. Something happened in my personal life that left me shattered. A person very important to me [passed away], and she was my backbone; the only person that would call me a hero every day in my home and always meant it. And I think once she [passed away] that confidence started to shatter; the only way to deal with that was to just keep working, and that’s what I did, ” Ahaan continued.
“I didn’t ever think it would be this [big]. I was happy doing this; I was never sour or bitter that things weren’t going my way, because I got to be on a set,” he shared.
“One thing that made me very happy is that very rarely as an artiste does your work speak first… for the first time, in a long time has a film come first, and as an artiste that’s the best thing you could ask for,” Ahaan concluded.
‘Saiyaara’ director Mohit Suri had earlier revealed that Ahaan was initially supposed to debut in another film.
“Ahaan had actually been workshopping with YRF for seven years. He was supposed to do a larger-than-life film before the pandemic. But the project was cancelled, because, as you know, the industry changed,” Mohit told Komal Nahta.
“Overnight, his pride and ‘guroor’ was killed. The same kid who was going around telling everyone that he would be launched by YRF was heartbroken. People started saying to him, ‘You were bragging about being launched by YRF, what now?’” He revealed that Aditya Chopra called him after the pandemic and assured him that his faith in Ahaan’s talent hadn’t diminished. But he told Ahaan that if he wished, he was free to explore opportunities outside the studio. “But the kid was adamant that he could only be launched by YRF, and it worked,” the director added.
Aneet opened up about a sweet moment she and Ahaan shared before signing the film.
“When I was auditioning for Saiyaara, Ahaan had taken me to Mount Mary Church and we’d lit a candle and sat in the car. I asked him, ‘What did you wish for?’ He looked at me and asked, ‘What did you wish for?’ A week later, I got the call that I’d gotten the role, and he said, ‘Of course, I’d wished that you’d get the role’!” she said.
Ahaan and Aneet’s ‘Saiyaara’ has become the second highest-grossing Hindi film of the year by earning over ₹568 crore worldwide.
