Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda Interview On Overnight Success With 'Saiyaara': 'We Don't Think This is Stardom'

It’s been a long day for Aneet Padda and Ahaan Panday. The Saiyaara stars are grappling with the sort of monstrous fame that is bestowed on newcomers once in a few decades — the last recipient was Hrithik Roshan in 2000. Both, twenty-something, are the hottest stars on the horizon — so much so that the Bollywood grapevine buzzes about insecure rivals doing paid campaigns to run down their film. Right now, the two are basking in the glory with wonderstruck eyes. This is their first cover shoot, and they’ve been posing all day. It’s also their first interview together.

Edited excerpt from the conversation.

THR India: What have the last few weeks been like?

Ahaan Panday: There’s so much going on; [the frenzy] still hasn’t sunk in. My friend’s father is paralysed from the waist down because of a cardiac problem. He FaceTimed to tell me about how he went to the cinema after a decade in his wheelchair and mentioned that the film made him love and respect his wife more because [it reminded him of] how much she has had to take care of him. That really hit me.

I used to tell Aneet that we don’t know what’s going to happen and we just have to be all heart because that’s all we can do. It’s my first film; you don’t know what you can do, you’re so confused and raw, especially on a set with 200 people. But when I heard this, I felt that maybe, we’d done what we promised to do.

Aneet Padda: My dadu has Alzheimer’s disease, which is why the film was even more emotional for me. He’s at a point now where he doesn’t remember most things, but I believed in this film because it says ‘dimaag bhool jaata hai par dil kabhi nahi bhoolta (the mind forgets but the heart does not)’, and that’s very true for my dadu. He doesn’t remember my name; he doesn’t remember most, but he calls me Heeraput, or Makkhan. The last few times that I had visited, he was okay with me sitting next to him; familiar but not knowing who I am or what’s going on.

So, when my film was coming out, I [thought] he’s not going to know or remember [me]. And then, [because he couldn’t go to the theatre since he’s bedridden] my parents showed him all the videos and everything; and he smiled and said ‘Heeraput’ and ‘Makkhan di movie’; and that was very special.

THR India: What are some moments about the Saiyaara journey that have stayed with you?

Aneet: I remember, in the beginning, when I was still auditioning for [Saiyaara], I hadn’t gotten the role yet and there were other people [being considered]; Ahaan had taken me to Mount Mary church [in Bandra, Mumbai] and we’d lit a candle and sat in the car and I asked him, ‘What did you wish for?’ He looked at me and asked, ‘What did you wish for?’ Then, a week later, I got the call [that I’d gotten the role], and he said, ‘Of course, I’d wished that you’d get the role.’

Ahaan: After the film released, Mohit sir, Aneet and I [went] back to Mount Mary. There are a lot of things that were so magical about the film; so many things that came together in ways I cannot explain.

THR India: How did you two construct these performances? Aneet, you have a monologue about what makes a memorable song. Most young actors would have to cut that since they can’t hold an emotion for that long.

Aneet: I remember reading the script for the first time, and Mohit sir had a conversation with me about the music. I was telling him what makes your music so evergreen is that you can’t grow sick of it, there’s just something that lingers. And that’s why people keep going back to [it]. I think after a month or two, I read that monologue again and I was like, ‘Forget the dialogue; what is the feeling I got when I spoke to him about that?’ so I was like, ‘Okay cool, just mug up the lines,’ and I just remembered that feeling and I wanted to focus on that. I meant every word; this particular monologue was pretty easy; we only did two or three takes.

The best scenes that the two of us did are the scenes where we didn’t complicate it too much. And Mohit sir said, ‘You kids need to stop overanalysing everything. When it comes to being on set, I just want you to feel.’ There was no over intellectualising of anything.

THR India: Ahaan, I really love the scene on that cricket pitch, after the encounter with your father. and Vaani (Padda’s character) says to you, ‘I want to help, but if you don’t want me to, I understand,’ and you just say, ‘Help me,’ in close-up. How did you do that?

Ahaan: I just did it. There was no strong thought process. I felt very deeply for this whole project, for all sorts of reasons. There are very few scenes where I meticulously thought about what I would do; for most of it I just followed my heart.

For the character, I had to tap into things before. During the auditioning process, we’d always create the scenes; [so when I was on set] I just let go of everything. I had to let go of the habit of directing myself. I completely surrendered and submitted to sir. I didn’t plan anything: we’d just learn the lines on the way because we wanted to be raw and real. We’d learn 80 per cent of the lines, because we didn’t want it to be very mechanical. There were a couple of days where I was like, ‘I have to go back to that; I have to rehearse,’ but the greatest thing was Mohit sir trusted us so much. There were times we went completely off-key, and he worked his magic; but other times he just believed that these two kids would pull it off.

Aneet: After a point, all three of us had reached a point where we’d give a shot; he’d look at us and we’d be like, ‘Got it, we know exactly what we’ve done wrong’.

THR India: The scene with the piano, where Vaani says, ‘I will write and make this song,’ ends with, ‘I love you Mahesh,’ and you give that kiss on the forehead. It was so beautifully done; was that a tough scene to do?

Aneet: None of it, after a point, was difficult per se; there were days that were challenging for other reasons, but whenever Ahaan and I had scenes together we’ve never had trouble.

Ahaan: I never felt it was challenging. I had a great team; we didn’t realise it while it was happening, but it was so collaborative. When we had emotional scenes, it was a quiet set without anyone having to say anything. The first five days were like a normal set, but over time the team started feeling the emotions of this film. I’ve assisted on a few things before this; [so I’m used to] the noise.

With the piano scene, there was no planning. It had grown so much on us, the only thing Mohit sir had to do was hold back the tears, because we were so moved. And there’s an arc, so you can’t be emotionally all out. That’s where he would step in.

Aneet: There was one day, [towards] the end of the schedule, where Ahaan was so deeply into it to the point where everybody feared him.

Ahaan: Because I was so overwhelmed with emotions.

Aneet: And he’d done it so beautifully because of that; I was supposed to not be remembering him, and watching Ahaan perform so beautifully I got so emotional. Sir said, ‘Beta, please itna bhi mat ro (please don’t cry so much)’; that’s what he means when he says that the characters affected us so deeply.

Ahaan: I told sir, ‘I’m feeling this way. After I give you one take my way, I’ll do whatever you want. So, I gave that one take where I let out all the emotion, but he also had his own approach. [With] the climax, [the director] has to be a little more hands-on.

THR India: Tell me about the ‘no promo’ promotion strategy. At a time when just about anyone is giving interviews or posing on social media, you both are currently the hottest stars and haven’t really done any media interactions. How are you both handling that?

Ahaan: One thing that made me very happy is that very rarely as an artiste does your work speak first. You [usually] come out with an article, or an interview, or a magazine spread beforehand. So, for the first time, in a long time has a film come first, and as an artiste that’s the best thing you could ask for.

Aneet: We were both crying on the last day of the shoot. Everyone kept saying, ‘There’s so much more to do, you guys are going to have cover shoots and things to do after this, you will meet,’ but the point was, what we were doing for this whole year, that’s over.

THR India: Shanoo Sharma, the casting director of this film, shared that Aditya Chopra called you [Ahaan] and your parents in and said, ‘There are other producers and agencies interested in you; I don’t know when I can make a film with him.’ Your parents said it was your call but you didn’t even hesitate before saying, ‘No, I’ll stay with Adi sir.’ Why were you so sure?

Ahaan: I think it goes back to my grandmother; that was the person close to me whom I lost. Yash Raj Films was a dream for me, it was the cinema I grew up with, the cinema my grandmother dreamed I would be a part of. She used to call me ‘Raj’ all the time. My sister’s Hindu name is Chandni, based on the film Chandni, and my Hindu name is Yash; we’re big filmy Yash Raj [Films] lovers.

So, when Adi sir asked me, it was instinctive because I believed it was my destiny. It was just this childhood dream of mine; I’ve seen these heroes my whole life, emulated them, looked up to them and that was [what I wanted to be] the first chapter of my professional life. I know [when I’m older] I’ll look back on this and be very happy, and I know my grandmother would be very happy. It was her dream for me to be an actor; I wanted to be a writer. Somewhere, I did this for her.

THR India: The first meeting for you, Aneet, with Mohit, as he tells it, was him saying, ‘What are you wearing?’ when you were in a yellow dress. What had you learned by then about keeping your composure and delivering what you have to?

Aneet: I’ll be very honest; I started enjoying [acting] with this film. For three years before that, I just had terrible anxiety and depression, mostly because I had gone to Delhi to study, not fully being sure if I’d make it anywhere in the industry at all. My parents were supportive, they said, ‘You’re doing this — that’s amazing, but you don’t know if this is going anywhere, you’re doing ads right now, that’s amazing as it is’.

I was just happy to be on a set, but they cautioned me: ‘You might need a job, you’ve got to have a backup!’ That’s the smart thing to do, but it was too much for me to handle, and I was just a pessimist. But I always wanted to act. I would be recording auditions and locking my door, telling them I was doing homework. I was 18 at the time; I started my research when I was 17. I knew I’d have to do this on my own because my parents didn’t have enough money to take me to Mumbai to audition. I don’t know what all I have done for at least two-to-three years.

I googled some weird acting agencies, which were total scams. Then Covid happened, so self-taping was a thing, and I called maybe 75 agencies. With this film, I thought, ‘Okay, I’ve got a YRF film. I don’t have to worry anymore because this was all that I’ve ever wanted; I wanted to be a Yash Raj heroine all my life’.

That’s when I started really working on myself to show up for work in a way that I’d never done before. Going forward, now I’ll be able to say, ‘I’ve learned this composure’ and it’s become a part of me. At my first meeting with Mohit sir, I didn’t really know if this was going to work out, so I just showed up as myself. I got nervous and talked too much. Thankfully, Ahaan was there because if he wasn’t, I don’t know what I would’ve said. So, they brought out a guitar, and I thought, ‘Thank God! I know how to play the guitar, now I can play it and sing a little bit’.

In his mind, it was disastrous, but in mine, it was, ‘Okay, I just got through this without freaking out’.

THR India: You are also a singer and a writer; is that something you want to pursue?

Aneet: Honestly, it’s not something I would pursue professionally because it’s my escape, I don’t want to monetise that. I’d put it out there at some point, of course. I would love to do film scoring; that’s something I’m very interested in, but acting is my first love and that’s never going to change. I keep asking musicians to teach me music production, because as an actor, anything and everything you put time and effort into pays off in some way or the other.

THR India: What was your reaction when this film started blowing up? And how hard has it been to move on and get back to working?

Ahaan: It felt more normal getting back to [work]. This was uncertain territory, everything happening with the film. We’re more used to [work] than everything that’s happening. We’re more comfortable looking for an acting job. In the beginning of the film, she was my senior, even though she is younger than me, because she’d had [more] technical [experience]. Aneet has changed so much through this film, she’s become so much more confident of herself. Though, on set, she was always very confident.

Aneet: Fake it till you make it.

Ahaan: I had to meditate before set every day. She’d get very annoyed. I’d shut my eyes and calm myself down. And I’d bring myself to a neutral state so that I could tap into whatever I needed to. But with the first film, the jitters are unreal. If it scares you then there’s something to it; you likely care so much about it. I did theatre for a little bit; I would get cold feet with the random audience, and it felt just like that.

THR India: What is next for the two of you, what can you tell us?

Ahaan: As of now, I think we’re still taking all of this in.

THR India: What do you want to do next? What’s your dream role?

Ahaan: I think my dream role exists in the ’90s, I don’t think it exists now.

Aneet: I feel like we’ll know our dream roles as soon as we see the script.

Ahaan: Genre-wise I don’t know, but anything that challenges me. That’s what I realised with Saiyaara. This is not a character I thought I would do; the auditions I would do would be softer, goofier, full of energy and positivity, the boy next door. You don’t want [Krish] next door.

Aneet: Everyone on set [would say] I’m the real Krish and he’s the real Vaani, because we’re the opposites of our characters.

THR India: Is stardom what you would imagine it to be?

Aneet: It’s not, but that’s a good thing. When you’re younger you think stardom, and you’re chasing a certain feeling, some kind of grand love which we’re so lucky to get. The beginning and ending of everything is love, the fact that I’ve gotten that [for Saiyaara], I don’t even know how to view it in terms of stardom.

That’s for other people to say, and as an actor I can’t put any labels as to what I am and what I am not. Identity-wise, I just look at myself as this vessel in the universe experiencing itself.

Ahaan: I don’t think this is stardom; that’s earned over many years. We’ve gotten a lot of appreciation, but stardom must be earned not just with one film or one character. I have to keep my head low, improve with every film, and if I put this much heart into every character for the next decade, then I could consider it stardom.

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