Ahaan Panday features in Grazia India at a moment that feels quietly transformative, a phase where years of exploration, rejection, and self-discipline have finally converged into clarity. Fresh from the success of Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara, which introduced him to audiences nationwide, Panday comes across not as an overnight sensation, but as an artist shaped by patience, curiosity, and a deep respect for the process of becoming.
Ahaan Panday approaches acting with quiet preparation and a deep respect for the craft. Years spent assisting on film sets gave him an instinctive understanding of process, which reflects in his performances. For Saiyaara, he immersed himself in character work, shaping Krish with intention and restraint, and consciously bringing vulnerability and softness to the role where it mattered most.
Tracing his early years, Panday speaks about a restless creative hunger that never allowed him to stay in one lane. “At sixteen, I tried DJing and then music production followed. I had a group called Bass Trap and we released tracks under it. Then came video game design. Later, I started assisting on film sets since that passion for storytelling was always hidden beneath everything else. I observed everything quietly at sets. Post that, I also gave my first film audition and that’s where I got a taste of theatre and what performing in front of a proper crowd felt like. It’s here I decided to stick to this one thing.”
By his late teens, the realities of the industry set in. Talking about his teenage life, he added, “That’s when the no’s began,” Panday says matter-of-factly. Directors would want to work with him, but producers didn’t want to take the risk with a new face. Auditions came with silences. Some things worked. Many didn’t. Reflecting on that phase, he shares, “I learnt that it takes a lot of courage to act because at the end of the day, it’s an art form, which is not a commercially viable occupation.”
Instead of resistance, he learned acceptance. “I understood there were going to be a lot of no’s before there would be a yes, and that it is a part of the process. While I’ve been a part of a beautiful film like Saiyaara, I know the next Friday when I have a film coming out, it’s going to count as it is something I have to learn to live with,” he says not as a cliché, but as a lived truth.
That grounding translated deeply into his work on Saiyaara, especially while shaping his character, Krish. “I had a diary where I wrote extensively about Krish and how I wanted him to be, things about him, and what he was feeling before scenes. There was this one thing written in bold letters on top of it: The softness and masculinity for Krish.” He adds, “When I read the script, I noticed there was no softness. There was more of a duality and how this man changes for her, so I was clear that in the second half, I have to bring that softness and vulnerability because it was missing.”
Despite the film’s impact and the attention that followed, Panday admits he hasn’t fully processed the shift. “I still haven’t,” he says. It only registers when people meet him and share how the film moved them not online, but face to face. That intimacy makes it real. “I think it’s better to not know. I just want to move on to the next one.”
