When children of celebrities, better known as star kids, begin their journey in the film industry, they often bear the burden of the nepotism debate. It is only when they manage to prove their calibre that they are truly accepted by the audience. A good example of the same is Alia Bhatt, who has won hearts time and again with her versatility. Well, another star in the making seems to be Ananya Panday. She was initially trolled a lot, but over the years she has grown as an actor. In fact, a majority of us would agree that her work in Kho Gaye Hum Kahan (2023) was exceptional! But do people take her seriously after her recent releases?

Ananya seems to think so. In a recent interview, the actor claimed that people have started to take her seriously as an actor after her recent OTT releases— Call Me Bae, which marks her first ever web series, and Vikramaditya Motwane’s film CTRL, which took the digital route. In the web series, Ananya portrayed the role of an heiress who is downsized to a hustler after she cheats on her husband. Meanwhile, in CTRL, we met the actor as influencer Nella who finds herself lost in the dark world of AI assistants. Well, Ananya’s performance was lauded in both the projects. However, she is now getting trolled for thinking that people take her seriously.

Under a Reddit thread, one social media user claimed, “She is in her delusional era 😅,” whereas another remarked, “Go to bed, think what you want to achieve, sleep on it, wake up and declare you have done it!! Rinse, repeat…life has never been simpler.” A nasty comment read, “It’s more for her fashion Choices though.. one theatrical films where she isn’t Playing herself, all the air castles that are built by her pr will just vanish in air itself 🤣 she is sonam 2.0 not alia 2.0 . She has Just grabbed more eyeballs , yes . But taken seriously as an actor is a stretch.thanks to her pr. Even in that recent bhidu ad , I saw only overacting of her trying to imitate js . She is not even a good mimic,” while a troll referred to Ranbir Kapoor’s niece Samara Sahni and wrote, “The only person taking her seriously is Ridhima Kapoor’s daughter ( Fabulous Lives of bollywood wives 3 reference ifykyk).”

But there were also some fans who came out in Ananya’s support. For instance, one social media user shared, “Ok hear me out , I think she was pretty good in CTRL and it was a decent movie,” whereas another opined, “Tbh, she performed well in her previous two projects.”

What are your thoughts on Ananya’s growth as an actor over the last few years?