Ananya Panday experienced trolling and comments about her body even before she became an actress. She spoke to Bollywood Bubble about how she deals with it.
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00:00In school, I think, as I said, I was surrounded by a really solid group of friends and I had
00:15my girls, you know, hooked on to whenever I needed.
00:19And I also had like my parents and even the teachers in my school were really, really
00:22nice.
00:23So I wouldn't say that I was bullied or anything.
00:24There was obviously like some teasing in school, you know, if you liked a boy, then they tease
00:29you with them.
00:30Or because I was very thin as I still am in school, so they'd make fun of like my toothpick
00:34legs.
00:35Really?
00:36What did they say?
00:37Just like calling me chicken legs or toothpick legs or whatever, like stuff like that.
00:42And also I was very hairy in school.
00:44So they used to like, I used to have hair on my arms and all when I was young.
00:47So they used to make fun of that and all.
00:49So all those things.
00:50They used to call me hunchback because I used to have a slouch.
00:52But like, I feel like I always got through it because of my friends.
00:57I feel like that's where I derive my like positivity and my self-confidence from.
01:01But there used to be pictures of me with my parents because at that time I wasn't an actor.
01:05So, you know, I'd go out with my parents and stuff.
01:07And as I said, I was very thin.
01:09I didn't look, you know, people used to say I look like a boy.
01:13I'm like a flat screen.
01:15I look like all those kind of things.
01:17So I feel like at that time it did hurt because those are the years where you're forming your
01:21self-confidence and you know, you're like, you're learning to love yourself.
01:24And then when you feel like someone else is pulling you down, then it really just gets,
01:29then you start doubting yourself.
01:30You start doubting the way you look and everything.
01:33I think when you get bullied too much, you have a certain resistance to it and then it
01:37stops affecting you.
01:38Then you're like, it doesn't matter what anyone says.
01:41Did you reach that point anytime in life?
01:43I feel like I'm reaching that point.
01:45I feel like it's like an ongoing process.
01:48I can't say that it still doesn't hurt me because I feel like I am pretty thick skinned
01:53and I am pretty strong.
01:54Because as you said, when it's been happening from such a young age, then you kind of develop
01:57that thick skin.
01:58But I feel like still one day if you're not in the right frame of mind, if something happened
02:03at work and then on top of that you see something, then it can hurt you.
02:07Like if I say that it doesn't hurt me, I'd definitely be lying because there are days
02:11when I'm like, but why?
02:12You know, what did I do that's like so wrong that people, you know, get it?
02:16And I feel like when people attack your personality, that's like the worst thing that someone can
02:20do because that's purely you.
02:22It's like yourself, you know?
02:24So I feel like it does hurt when people say that, oh, her voice is so irritating, oh,
02:28why is she talking like this?
02:29And there's a thousand people, you know, doing my mimicry and all and all of that stuff.
02:33But I feel like you just have to develop a thick skin and just be as positive as you
02:42can be, as kind as you can be and make sure you don't let someone feel that way is what
02:46I feel like you can do.
02:47You can't go and control other people's lives or their opinions and all of that stuff.
02:51But you have to try to be that better person, the bigger person in the situation.