Actor Ananya Panday on Tuesday said her debut OTT series “Call Me Bae” is inspired by the many women-led comedy films, including Alicia Silverstone’s “Clueless” and “Aisha”, starring Sonam Kapoor, she grew up watching.
In the new Prime Video show, the “Kho Gaye Hum Kahan” actor plays the titular role of Bae aka Bella Chowdhary, who goes on riches to rags journey.
At the show’s trailer launch event here, Panday said Kareena Kapoor Khan’s character of Pooja Sharma, popularly known as Poo, from 2001’s “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…” by Karan Johar, who has also produced “Call Me Bae” through Dharmatic Entertainment.
“It’s an amalgamation of all these chick-flick kind of movies that I loved growing up. And then there was obviously Poo, who was iconic. I literally dressed up as Poo two years ago… I have all her quotes on my mirror and everything, so she’s really left an imprint on me.
“It’s like a mix of ‘Schitt’s Creek’, ‘Clueless’, ‘Aisha’, ‘Nancy Drew’… I don’t think we’re really getting to watch (such films and series) right now. It’s the kind of show that I love to watch. It’s very light, young adult, happy and fun. Even though Bae has a bit of all these characters (in her), she is fully her own person,” the actor told reporters.
“Call Me Bae”, directed by Collin D’Cunha and created by Ishita Moitra, sees Bae leading a privileged life in New Delhi, before she is disowned by her family.
She then moves to Mumbai, where she becomes a journalist to sustain herself and in the process, she forms unexpected friendships, alliances and faces many challenges thrown at her.
Panday, also known for starring in movies such as “Student of the Year 2”, “Gehraiyaan”, and “Dream Girl 2”, said Bae was the most fun yet challenging role of her career.
“It’s the first time that I’m doing a long-format series, and the advantage of that is that you get to go into every character. With films, you only have a couple of scenes. You can’t really build up a backstory that much. But with a long format, you get to do that,” she said, praising Johar and D’Cunha as well as the show’s team for helping her out during the shooting.
“Everything that I’ve done in the show is thanks to them. The crew, the dialogues, the way it (show) is written. It was just so much fun,” she added.
The show’s trailer, which was launched today, closes with a conversation between Bae and a security guard which is a hat-tip to Panday’s viral interview moment with her “Gehraiyaan” co-star Siddhant Chaturvedi during a roundtable interview a few years ago where he talked about the struggles of an outsider.
During that interview, Panday — daughter of actor Chunky Pandey — had equated success in the industry to “Koffee with Karan” appearances and Chaturvedi had responded with a comment that instantly went viral.
“The difference is jahaan humare sapne poore hote hain, wahi inka struggle shuru hota hai (their struggle begins where our dreams are fulfilled).” Asked about referencing the moment in “Call Me Bae”, Panday said they have “kind of owned up to it”.
“I said it like five years ago. I really struggled answering this question and honestly, I am done with that. I’m just trying to keep my head down and hope people like my work. And there is no struggle, I’m doing fine,” she said.
“Call Me Bae” also features Vir Das, Gurfateh Pirzada, Varun Sood, Vihaan Samat, Muskkaan Jaferi, Niharika Lyra Dutt, Lisa Mishra, and Mini Mathur in pivotal roles.
The show, which is executive produced by Johar, Apoorva Mehta, and Somen Mishra, will debut on Prime Video on September 6 in Hindi with dubs in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.
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