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Hustle is a rather important talent to have in a world like cinema where contacts and relationships make things go round. Despite facing the dizzying heights of success, and the alarming lows of failures, actor Chunky Panday is someone who stuck through everything to keep himself relevant over the years. Of course, he now calls himself the father of Ananya Panday and the husband of Bhavana Panday, but Chunky is a star in his own right. In an interview with Curly Tales, he opened up about various aspects of his career.
“I made my debut in 1987. In 86, Govinda started. In 1988, 89, and 90, we had Aamir, Salman, and Shah Rukh making their debuts. In subsequent years, we also had Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar starting. So, my honeymoon phase lasted just one year,” pointed out Chunky, who pragmatically said that he was doing a musical chair of multi-starrers but didn’t have a chair when the music stopped.
Reminiscing on how he developed the urge to relaunch his career in Hindi cinema, Chunky Panday narrated an incident that happened at a wedding. “A small boy came and asked if I was actually a hero. I told him to ask his mother about me. But then I realised I had to win that kid’s heart with my films. I wanted to appeal to children. That is why I did films like Housefull etc…” said Chunky, who revealed that he is enjoying this phase as an actor, and reiterated that he doesn’t regret anything about his cinema career. “I have really enjoyed my journey.”
Zeroing down on the kind of choices he made as an actor in his initial phase, Chunky said, “I hadn’t seen so much money. And those were the times when you used to showboat about the number of films you were working on. I didn’t know to slow down. I didn’t know how to choose properly. And the others were smarter in selecting roles, and phasing out their films.”
Talking about restarting his career after his return from Bangladesh where he had a brief stint as a superstar in their industry, Chunky pointed out that there was a generation that had no idea about him. Bhavana Panday shared that it is during such times that relationships come in handy.
“We tell Ananya that success might come and go, but maintain relationships. Be nice and kind. It will come back to you someway in life. Chunky’s second innings happened because he was nice to people. When you are at your lowest, and if you were horrible before, no one is giving you a second chance,” said Bhavana.
Delving into the psyche of an actor who has seen it all to restart from scratch, Chunky Panday said that it was important to give up one’s ego. “Actors should be shameless. You can’t be too self-conscious,” said Chunky. Talking about facing a financial crisis due to the ups and downs in his career, Bhavana said, “He never made us feel it. Of course, there were people around us who were doing better, and had better things. But we were comfortable, and we were happy.”
But the maverick Chunky pointed out that during one of his lowest phases before getting married to Bhavana, he faced an economic ‘crisis’. “It was 1996, and some of my money was locked in a real estate deal. I threw a party at that time, and I didn’t even have money to buy alcohol for it. I had to call my friend and ask for help,” said Chunky, whose cheeky smile was swiftly countered by Bhavana’s response. “It’s a good thing you didn’t have money to buy alcohol.”
On the work front, Chunky Panday was recently part of Anupam Kher’s Vijay 69, and will next be seen in Sajid Nadiadwala’s much-awaited Housefull 5.
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