Exclusive | Ananya Panday on Social Media Scrutiny and Box-Office Verdicts: 'So Much of Our Validation Is Based on a Friday'

The fate of a film that has been years in the making can be decided in a matter of hours — by Friday afternoon, the verdicts are already out. Months of production, promotion and anticipation boil down to opening numbers and early reviews. In an industry where box office numbers can make or break careers overnight, Ananya Panday shares how she finds steady ground.

“So much of our validation is just based on a Friday,” she says in a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India. “It’s for the world to see, and everything is so public. You can’t let it consume you.” The pressure of being in the public eye has been exacerbated by the Internet, she observes, where anyone and everyone is welcome to share their opinion.

The scrutiny, the actor points out, no longer comes from a handful of critics or experts: “Everyone has a take now," she says.  Social media has dismantled the hierarchy of criticism; the comment section is weighed with equal measure alongside the reviews. The noise follows them onto their phones—in the form of reels, reaction videos, fan edits, memes, and anonymous threads, she says.

Reflecting on her early days, she says, "I used to care a lot. I would think for hours about a caption, or a post." Obsessing over every minor detail, she notes, is a losing game. Years of being at the receiving end of that scrutiny, she admits, have forced her to learn the art of detachment, knowing when to unplug.

Having been in the industry for quite some time, Panday shares that she now knows how little power that noise actually holds. “People don’t care. You think people care, but they don’t—people have other things happening in their lives.” It’s a grounding reminder for her: today's headline will be forgotten tomorrow.