Chunky Panday Reveals Why He Never Took Ananya Panday On His Sets When He Was "Flat Broke": "Low Phase, Was Trying To Get Work"

Chunky Panday has gone on record to mention that he is proud to be known as Ananya Panday's father. While Ananya is riding on a career high now after several successful movies, awards and accolades, things were not always same for the Panday family. The father-daughter duo recently caught up for a chat for We Are Yuvaa, and he opened up on several things, including his "low phase." The actor let down his guards and shared his experience of the time when he had no films and had to switch career paths to make money. He also revealed why he never took his daughter or wife Bhavana Pandey to his film sets.

Talking about his rock bottom, the actor said, "Why you never came on set was because when your mum and I got married, I was in that low phase. I had just returned from Bangladesh and was trying to get work for myself. I never got into that thing of calling you on the set or mom on the set, and it just stayed that way."

Speaking of this decline in his career, Ananya asked her father if he ever felt like it was the end of his career, to which Chunky replied, "Yeah Yeah. The end means it was like musical chairs were happening and when the music stopped, you didn't have a chair to sit on. I mean, I had blockbuster films and this was right after Aankhen, which is supposed to be an iconic hit. I actually had no work. The only film I got was Teesra Kaun, and it completely dried up after that."

His struggle began after his Bollywood career "dried up". "I landed up going to Bangladesh, doing movies there. Luckily those worked and I kind of made that my home for 4-5 years. But yeah, it was scary. But actually I didn't stop working. I opened an events company. Then I started doing events. I started, you know, dealing in land, buying properties... Imagine going from house to house trying to do things. I just kept my ego aside and I said I needed to survive and so I did all these things but I learned a lot in that process. So I've been through flat broke I mean," he disclosed. 

Ananya also asked if her dad's parents ever offered help at his low phase. The actor said, "If you're a guy and you started off your career, now you can't go back to them and say I need money." But he also shared that his parents did not know about his poor finances at the time. 

Ananya Panday started her Bollywood career with Student Of The Year 2 in 2019, and since then she has carved out her niche in the industry, choosing the right films and projects. She will be seen in the second season of Call Me Bae, as well as Dharma Productions' next film Chand Mera Dil which was recently announced.