{"id":202032,"date":"2025-12-20T14:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T14:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/202032\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T14:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T14:31:08","slug":"gq-men-of-the-year-2025-ahaan-panday-on-winning-actor-of-the-year-his-familys-reaction-to-saiyaaras-success-5-year-plan-and-what-he-looks-for-in-a-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/202032\/","title":{"rendered":"GQ Men of the Year 2025: Ahaan Panday on winning \u2018Actor of the Year\u2019, his family’s reaction to Saiyaara’s success, 5-year plan, and what he looks for in a partner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your meteoric rise has been a shared journey with your family. What were their first reactions when Saiyaara saw a strong opening?<\/p>\n

I was just hoping we\u2019d open to a decent figure so I\u2019d get more work. My only thought was, \u2018Will I get work after this?\u2019 Debutants rarely get second chances. I prayed everywhere, at church, at the temple. And when the numbers came in, I remember, for the first time, thanking God instead of \u00adasking for something. My sister Alanna was very emotional. She\u2019s a tough cookie; she\u2019s intelligent and independent. I\u2019ve never seen her break down except on her wedding day, but she cried after the film was released. My mom couldn\u2019t even look at me. Every time she did, tears rolled down her cheeks. Dad looked at me like, \u2018Is this really my son?\u2019 They were all truly happy.<\/p>\n

How do you feel about being on the Men of the Year honouree list along with your cousin Ananya [Panday]?<\/p>\n

When I was doing the GQ shoot at Mehboob Studio, I found out Ananya<\/a> was on set too. I went to see her. There we were\u2014brother and sister\u2014standing in a vanity van, in costume, working. It\u2019s a moment that\u2019s burned into my memory. She\u2019s unbelievably successful, and she\u2019s so happy for me. I\u2019ve realised I can\u2019t share much of my journey publicly yet; it\u2019ll be misconstrued until I prove myself. My family knows my story, that\u2019s why they\u2019re emotional.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s one childhood memory between the two of you that you will always remember?<\/p>\n

We were animated kids; sword fights, plays, pretending to be kings and queens. We got so much love at home. Acting is training, but also upbringing. We were always allowed to express ourselves. A memory\u2026 Well, Ananya loves gajar ka halwa. I remember her eating it four times a day. And once, she and Alanna bashed my head against the door\u2014they thought it was funny, didn\u2019t think I\u2019d start bleeding and end up in hospital!<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Shirt, jacket and trousers by Rohit Gandhi + Rahul Khanna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your meteoric rise has been a shared journey with your family. What were their first reactions when Saiyaara…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1479,1482,321,921,29642,93,106701,106702,61,1635,60],"class_list":["post-202032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ananya-panday","tag-bollywood","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity","tag-divert-me","tag-entertainment","tag-gq-men-of-the-year-awards","tag-hindi-movies","tag-ie","tag-interview","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}