More than three decades ago, Chunky Panday, now better known as Ananya Panday’s father made his Bollywood debut. In a recent interview, the actor shared that his popularity decreased when Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Govinda, and Ajay Devgn entered the film industry.
In an interview with SCREEN, Chunky opened up about his challenges at the time. Speaking about making a space for himself in the 1990s- he said, “I got lost. I came when the galaxy was exploding- 1986 was Govinda, I came in 87, the next year was Aamir, Salman came in 1989 and Ajay was in 1990. So, they just kept coming, these big superstars. I did get lost, and I enjoyed my honeymoon for exactly a year. That whole year of 1988 was fantastic for me, and then, everything just faded out.”
Ups and downs
He added, “I was that young blood who always wanted to keep working and was taking on any kind of work, trying to make money. Then, you can’t chart your career very well because your priorities become very different. But then again, there is also a lot of luck involved. If I had to re-live my life, I will still go through the same process because I have also enjoyed my ups and downs. Let me tell you, downs are also great. Nobody is watching you; you are not being judged when you are down- you can do anything”.
His career graph
In 33 years Chunky’s career has had both good and bad times. In the 1980s and 90s, he started as a lead hero but later had to take smaller roles. His first movie was Aag Hi Aag, and he went on to act in movies like Tezaab and Paap Ki Duniya.
In 1993, he had a big hit movie called Aankhen with Govinda. He thought this success would bring him lots of work, but surprisingly, he got fewer roles after that.
Things turned around for him in 2010 when he played a funny character called Aakhri Pasta in the movie Housefull.