Prashant Singh (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 25, 2019)

Even before making her Bollywood debut [with Student Of The Year 2], Ananya Panday was known to be quite a fashionista, largely thanks to her much-followed social media posts. Now, of course, her fashion quotient levels seem to have gone several notches higher. But not many know that the young actor finds her father’s [actor Chunky Panday] “quirky” sense of style “very cool”.

As Ananya puts it, “Dad is very chilled out. So, whether it’s his makeup or hair, he is very casual about such things. He has his own style and is very cool that way. Plus, I feel he belongs to a very different school of filmmaking-acting when things wouldn’t be how they are now.” Probably that’s why Ananya and even her mother [Bhavna Panday] gives him, what he jokingly calls “a complete tuition”, on how to handle media appearances, interviews and photo shoots etc.

“They tell me that I should behave myself, not talk too much and not make too many faces (laughs), so that they don’t get embarrassed by the crazy things that I do,” says Chunky. Adds Ananya: “You know, since dad is very casual in his approach, we are always like, ‘you have to dress properly, wear this or that.’ But deep down, I feel he should just be himself (smiles). In front of my mum, I always take her side and I am like, ‘what are you doing dad? You should listen to her.’ But when she isn’t around, then I am like, ‘can I have a shirt or two of yours (laughs)?’”

Chunky goes on to reveal that whenever he shops for his clothes from abroad, his wife and daughter “hardly ever like them”. “They will be like, ‘arrey, what have you bought?’ But when Ananya, on a fashion disaster day, can’t find anything nice in her cupboard, she quietly sneaks into my cupboard. She loves my quirky sense of style/fashion.”

To which, she readily agrees. “That’s true. I always wear my dad’s shirts (smiles). I went for Saand Ki Aankh screening a few days back for which I wore a leopard print full sleeves shirt. No one knows that it’s my dad’s shirt. When I have nothing worthwhile to wear, I pick up my dad’s clothes at the last minute. His colour palette [of clothes] is very colourful,” she says.

But Chunky has a bit of a practical issue. He explains: “What’s a bit problematic is when she wears my shirts before me. Because she goes out and gets photographed [in those shirts] so then, I have to wait for three-four months before I wear them. Otherwise, people will say, ‘main Ananya ke kapde pehen raha hoon (laughs).” He shares that his mum used to dress him up in girl’s clothes when he was very young as she wanted a daughter. “So, that way, my tastes are quite feminine when it comes to clothes,” he says.