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‘He’d land from Kent and come straight to my house’: Ahaan Panday on his bond with Aryan Khan
Ahaan Panday opened up about what a potential director–actor collaboration with his childhood friend Aryan Khan could look like.
Ahaan Panday, who made his debut with Saiyaara, has spoken about his desire to work with close friend Aryan Khan in the future.
Ahaan Panday and Aryan Khan have been friends for most of their lives. One is the nephew of actor Chunky Panday and the son of businessman Chikki Panday, the other is the son of Shah Rukh Khan, who made his directorial debut with the Netflix series The Ba***ds of Bollywood last year. They grew up in the same circles, spent time at each other’s homes, and shared the kind of history that tends to make professional collaborations feel like a natural extension of friendship.
So when in a recent conversation with Filmfare, Ahaan was asked whether he and Aryan could make for a compelling director-actor pairing on screen, his answer was an immediate yes.
“Yeah, in the future, why not? Not for anything superficial, not because of Bads or Saiyaara, but because of a real bond,” he said.
Ahaan Panday then went on to describe the depth of that bond with some specificity. “When you grow up with someone, it’s different. There was a time when he’d land from Kent and before even meeting his parents, he’d come straight to my house. His parents would call me asking why he was like that. When you share that kind of history, there’s so much you understand about each other, so much to explore as performers. Working together wouldn’t feel like work. It’s something I’d genuinely look forward to,” Ahaan said.
Aryan Khan made his directorial debut with The Ba***ds of Bollywood, a Netflix series that premiered on September 18, 2025. Created, co-written and directed by Aryan, and produced by his mother Gauri Khan under Red Chillies Entertainment, the series followed an ambitious young actor navigating the politics of the Hindi film industry.
Ahaan Panday, meanwhile, broke out with Saiyaara, Mohit Suri’s romantic musical produced by Yash Raj Films, in which he starred opposite Aneet Padda. The film went on to become one of the highest-grossing romantic films in Indian cinema history. The pairing of Ahaan and Aneet, dubbed “Ahneet” by their rapidly growing fanbase, became one of the more talked-about debuts in recent Bollywood memory.