“While some star kids have successfully found their footing in Bollywood, others continue to face challenges associated with the ‘nepo baby’ label. In a recent interview, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap spoke about Ananya Panday’s career trajectory, noting how she evolved after Siddhant Chaturvedi’s widely discussed remark on nepotism and struggle. He also said that many star kids struggle to progress because their parents tend to hold them back.
During a conversation with The Juggernaut, Anurag was asked about his favourite star kids in showbiz. “Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Ananya, and Ayan Mukerji. There’s Dhanush in the South. There are lots of people, Fahadh Faasil,” he replied.
Praising Ananya Panday’s recent work, and crediting that to Siddhant Chaturvedi ‘s wake-up call, the director said, “I think she has figured out. That one thing that happened long back in an interview when Siddhant Chaturvedi said that ‘Our struggles begin when yours end’, I think she took it very personally. I think something happened, altered inside her, because something about her changed after that.” Back in 2019, Ananya equated struggle to not being invited to Koffee With Karan and Siddhant gave her a savage reply. He said, “Everyone has their own struggle. The only difference is jahan humare sapne poore hote hain, wahan inka struggle shuru hota hai (their struggle begins where our dreams are fulfilled).”
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Kashyap added, “After that, I saw her in CTRL and Kho Gaye Hum Kahan. Something flipped inside her and she found herself or she is on the path to find herself. Whatever it is, she is doing great stuff. She took a risk, she is taking risks and she is quite nature. She experiments and is not playing safe unlike others.”
Anurag Kashyap also feels that the parents of other star kids don’t allow them to grow by putting restrictions. “Kids actually are much more smart. More than the kids, I think the parents are not letting the kids be, or make their choices. For the sake of safety, the parental thing kicks in that I know better and I will protect my children, and give them a very successful career. That’s where the problem is. Let them go out and do things normally on their own. The problem doesn’t lie with the kids, it lies with their parents,” he concluded.
