Ahaan Panday On His Ask FM Popularity During Teens: ‘The Persona I Had Was…’ | Bollywood News

Last Updated:August 31, 2025, 16:02 IST

Saiyaara actor Ahaan Panday, who was once very popular on Ask.fm and Instagram, said that his old social media persona was not an authentic reflection of himself.

Ahaan Panday Opens Up About His Ask FM, Instagram Popularity During Teens

Ahaan Panday made an impressive Bollywood debut with Mohit Suri’s romance drama film ‘Saiyaara’ which was released in July. The film shattered box office records, instantly catapulting him into the spotlight. While Ahaan’s acting career has only recently taken off, he once enjoyed massive social media popularity in his teens, and was quite active on Ask.fm, Dubsmash and Instagram! Now, in his first interview post the success of Saiyaara, Ahaan Panday admitted that his old social media persona was not an authentic reflection of himself. He said that it was an ‘adopted’ personality as he thought it was needed to get attention and work from the film industry.

Saiyaara Star Ahaan Panday On Social Media Fame In His Teens

In an interview with Hollywood Reporter India, Ahaan Panday was asked about once being a social media star on Ask.fm. He replied, “Not a star! I was 15, and on Instagram, maybe I was active between the ages of 16 to 18. But I stopped. When I was active on Instagram, the persona I had on it was never who I really was; it was who I thought I needed to be to get attention from the film fraternity so that I could get work. It’s a personality I adopted.”

He further added that even the few media interactions he had back then was because of his cousin and actress Ananya Panday, and uncle Chunky Panday. “To me, an actor was out there. I didn’t know an actor could be an introvert and still pull off a good performance. For me, it was very black and white. Even the short film I did was just to get work. That was all part of it; I thought there would be no other way,” he admitted.

Ahaan’s Saiyaara co-star Aneet Padda assured him that everyone has gone through that phase, but his was just more public. “Growing up, we’ve all had that. Yours was just more public. But it’s so normal; I remember being the same age, thank God I had no social media,” she said.

Saiyaara, directed by Mohit Suri and produced by Yash Raj Films, released in theatres on July 18. The film marked Ahaa and Aneet’s Bollywood debuts, and the cast of the film also included Rajesh Kumar, Varun Badola, Geeta Agrawal, Shaan Randhawa, Alam Khan, Sid Makkar, Shaan Grover and others.