Ananya Panday was thrilled when she discovered her picture on packets of phuljhari (sparklers). In a video shared by a fan account on Instagram, Ananya was sitting on a couch when her cousin, influencer Alanna Panday, walked in holding the packets, which she had found at a roadside shop.
Alanna handed the packets to Ananya, who was visibly surprised. She took them and excitedly exclaimed, “I’m on phuljhari. That’s my dream. Was I actually on it or did you make it?” Ananya then called her mother, Bhavana Pandey, to share the exciting news, saying, “I’m on the phuljhari packet. This is for my Instagram.”
Ananya’s uncle, Alanna’s father Chikki Panday, joined in the celebration, saying, “You’re on the phuljhari packet now? You’ve made it. Trust me.” As others around her clapped, Bhavana asked, “Who put this on the packet?” Ananya replied, “I’m so happy,” and then turned to the person filming the video, presumably Alanna’s husband Ivor McCray, asking, “How did you find this?”
Ivor explained, “I don’t know, I just saw it on the side of the road and thought, ‘Is that Ananya?’ I had to buy it.” The video ended with Ananya’s father, Chunky Panday, joining them. The three of them, along with the phuljhari packets, smiled and posed for the camera.
Fans were quick to react to the video. One fan commented, “When you’re on a random phuljhari packet, you know you’ve made it as a famous actress.” Another wrote, “I’m falling in love with her, to be honest.” A fan praised Ananya’s innocence, saying, “She is so cute and sweet. I love her.” One Instagram user joked, “That means @ananyapanday, you’ve been accepted by Indians. Next stop will be juice carts and makeup parlors.”
Ananya is currently enjoying the success of her Netflix film *CTRL*, in which she plays Nella Awasthi, an influencer who, after a painful breakup, uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to erase her ex-boyfriend from her life.
Ananya will next appear alongside Akshay Kumar and R. Madhavan in a film about the renowned lawyer C. Sankaran Nair, who fought a legal battle against the British Empire in the 1920s. The untitled film is set to release on March 14, 2025, and is produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Akshay Kumar’s Cape of Good Films, and Leo Media Collective. It will be the directorial debut of writer Karan Singh Tyagi.
