Ananya Panday doesn’t want to leave her baby, her dog Riot, alone even for a minute. Bhavana Pandey, her mum, has only now learnt to let her baby go solo — in her new apartment. We chat up the duo, who are in the middle of a new series of unique firsts.

Ananya: Not helicopter. In school, she was strict, involved in all my school work. I was the first child, and she would do all my projects. I wouldn’t say I was pampered, but she would help me revise everything. My mum secretly wanted to become an actor, someone in the family told me, that’s why she would get into my learning of poems and elocution. Also, I used to tell her about even the smallest of things. She was one of the more chill moms. She was involved when I started my career as an actor, I needed her. I would be lost if my mom was not there to help me.

Ananya: It’s been a few days since Riot came home, and I messaged mum on the third night, saying ‘It’s tough to be a mother’! (laughs)

Bhavana: Ananya’s a lot like her father... Riot has only come now, so we have to see how her journey is. I used to be the one who would shower love on her when she was born, Chunky did, too, but he was paranoid about her. I remember at night, Ananya would be sleeping in her cot, and he would go to check if she is breathing. In the middle of the night.

Ananya: I do the same with Riot.

Ananya: I am loving it! I never went abroad to study, never lived outside my house. I was very protected. I am living alone but still close to parents. It is a healthy space, asking me to take responsibility and not depend on them. They are still a phone call away, but I am trying to take on as much responsibility as I can.

Bhavana: Ananya moved out in January. She wanted to get her own space as soon as she entered films. I felt she should not take added responsibility back then. How many people are fortunate to live in Mumbai, and have people looking after everything? I felt she should take advantage of it and concentrate on work. I was nervous in the beginning, but when Rysa went to the US, I realized I should let them fly.

Ananya: I don’t read comments anymore.

Bhavana: It used to bother me what they wrote about her. I have realized that even if 100 people talk badly about you, it’s just a small speck in the universe. There are so many people that love you! I don’t think there is much bad written about me. At the most they will say ‘buddhi’ or ‘Why are these women doing this show, they are not star wives’. First, you, too, are going to be at that age one day, and secondly, we said ‘Bollywood wives’, not ‘star wives’.

Ananya: (laughs) Everyone at home is suddenly super busy. Even dad (actor Chunky Panday) is doing films in Gujarati and Tamil, and OTT shows. Mom’s Fabulous Lives Of Bollywood Wives has taken off. But at home, we discuss work a lot less now, and our lives more often.

Bhavana: I always saw it from an outside perspective, an emotional one. Now I understand Ananya and Chunky’s profession better. I remember Chunky coming back after a 12-hour shoot and I would expect him to be chirpy and tell me how the shoot was. Today, I know when you are in front of the camera, you’re so exhausted when you come home, you need me time.

Ananya: I don’t think she needs the tips! I was just telling her what to do in the shoot, and she told me sarcastically, ‘Oh, why don’t you become a director!’ You learn so much by observing people as an actor — and she’s quite a pro at it already.

Bhavana: I am terrible at learning lines. I don’t think I have the bandwidth to sit and learn lines or get into characters.