Exclusive | Ahaan Panday on His 'Adopted' Instagram Personality and 'Paid' Campaigns Against 'Saiyaara': 'I'd Go Insane If...'
The breakout star on ignoring the clouds of negativity that surrounded his debut, and his old 'persona' on Instagram
Ahaan Panday is soaking up the success of his breakout hit, Saiyaara. The romantic musical led by newcomers shook up the Hindi film industry by defying all predictions and emerging as the second highest-grossing Indian film of 2025. And while the Mohit Suri-directorial has received overwhelming love from most quarters, there were also rumours of ‘paid’ campaigns by other actors to undermine its mammoth success.
In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, debutant Ahaan, 27, seems unfazed by these passing clouds of negativity. The young actor is keeping his spirits high by choosing to focus on the good and ignoring the noise.
“The first few days after the movie released, I noticed a lot of people [sharing their opinions] hadn’t even seen the film,” Ahaan said. “That’s too much to think about; I’d go insane thinking about actors in the fraternity and their opinions on us. That’s too much.”
His co-star, Aneet Padda, chimed in with a similar note of positivity. “I have one philosophy,” she said. “It’s unnatural to be exposed to so much. People who aren’t in this industry have their work lives, their personal lives, and that’s their focus. Whatever drama happens within that, they deal with it. But we’re not supposed to be mentally equipped to deal with so much. My mom, my dad, my friends — if they had anything to say, that would probably affect me. Anybody else, I really don’t care.”
In the same conversation, Ahaan shared that he didn’t check Instagram much after the film released, despite having been a popular content creator in his teens. He conceded his old social media persona was a wholly improvised one—a kid’s idea of an ‘actor’ needed to be.
“I was 15, and on Instagram, maybe I was active between the ages of 16 to 18. But I stopped. When I was active on
Instagram, the persona I had on it was never who I really was; it was who I thought I needed to be to get attention from the film fraternity so that I could get work. It’s a personality I adopted,” he said.
To read more exclusive stories from The Hollywood Reporter India's September 2025 print issue, pick up a copy of the magazine from your nearest book store or newspaper stand.