Twinkle Khanna and Farah Khan take swipe at Ananya Panday for defending Gen Z’s focus on mental health: ‘Traumatised by everything’

During the conversation, the stars also discussed how follower count dominates casting. While Ananya agreed with the notion that social media dictates casting, Kajol, Twinkle, and Farah  disagreed with her. Defending her stance, Ananya said, “I don’t think it decides all the casting but I have heard people say, ‘Oh, this person has lots of following, let’s take them.’”

Farah countered by saying that makers don’t cast actors in lead roles just because of their social media following. While Ananya admitted this might be true, she insisted that such casting often happens for side roles. Farah chimed in, “For a good role, they will choose a better actress.” To this, Ananya countered, “I hope so, but I don’t think it always happens.”

Farah took the example of Ananya’s cousin and Saiyaara’s breakout star Ahaan Panday and how staying away from social media actually worked in his favour. “With Ahaan, the opposite happened. He was told not to go on social media till the film releases,” she said. Taking a playful jibe at Ananya, Farah continued, “Just because you lost a role to an influencer…” Ananya responded, “Pissed.”

In recent times, many social media influencers like Kusha Kapila, Dolly Singh, Apoorva Mukhija, Bhuvan Bam, Shirley Setia, Prajakta Koli, and others have made it to the screen after achieving immense popularity online.