Social media’s beef with Ananya Panday needs to be studied. The actor could post a photo, say the most generic thing, or blink twice in an interview, and the internet would still somehow find a way to troll her.
The latest iteration of the never-ending ‘Let’s Roast Ananya’ show came after the release of her film Chand Mera Dil. The critics appreciated Panday’s performance, but before the positive reviews could even settle in, people on the internet started obsessing over a dance sequence.The scene featured Panday’s character Chandni performing a fusion of Bharatanatyam with hip-hop and locking. A clip of the dance went viral, and social media reacted as if Panday had vandalised centuries of Indian culture. They labelled her performance as “Nepo Natyam”.
It pushes me to wonder if someone is behind this curated outrage—what the industry calls ‘negative PR’ against Panday. There cannot be any other logical reason behind it.Bollywood has been remixing, commercialising, and modernising classical dance forms for decades. We have seen semi-classical numbers, fusion choreography, hip-hop mixed with folk styles, and interpretations of classical dance. But when Panday does it, minute details of her hand movements are observed and criticised.
