Ananya Panday defends Deepika Padukone over her 8-hour shift preference

Ananya defended her ‘Gehraiyaan’ co-star Deepika Padukone in the row over her alleged 8-hour shift preference as a new mother, calling it a “private matter.” Speaking to Hollywood Reporter India alongside Kareena Kapoor Khan and Kalyani Priyadarshan, she reflected on working with Deepika before motherhood: “I’ve worked with her before she became a mother, there was no such thing like that. She was working, coming for workshops, no complaints, no asking for anything, and that sort of way. Now she’s a mother and this is what she needs. To kind of be present with her child at a time during the first two years is a challenge.”The actress noted that Bollywood has long grappled with work-life balance talks, crediting Kareena Kapoor Khan for revolutionizing things for women and mothers in the industry. “Kareena did that, she changed the game for all of the girls coming after her,” Panday noted. She advocated for open producer-actor chats: “So, I think it’s okay to have a conversation with your producer, to find a balance between it’s a private conversation you must have, and it’s something that can be worked around. There’s no hard and fast rule like ‘nai karenga, nai karna hai’. I think everyone is allowed to have that conversation,” she concluded.

Ananya Panday’s Bollywood career

On the work front, Ananya Panday entered Bollywood in 2019 with the teen drama ‘Student Of The Year 2’, starring alongside Tiger Shroff and Tara Sutaria. Since then, she’s featured in movies like ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh’, ‘Khaali Peeli’, ‘Liger’, and ‘Dream Girl 2’, among others. Her roles, especially in ‘Gehraiyaan’ and ‘CTRL’, earned praise from both critics and viewers. The actress was last seen in ‘Tu Meri Main Tera, Main Tera Tu Meri’ opposite Kartik Aaryan. The film, released in December, underperformed at the box office.