Harkening back to the insider-outsider debate, Chunky Pandey may have been an outsider once but he is part of the machinery today with daughter Ananya Pandey’s launch by Karan Johar coming under a fair amount of scrutiny. Ananya Pandey is doing a Telugu film Fighter with Vijay Devarakonda and is being directed by Puri Jagannath. Chunkey Pandey in a press interview says, “I have been around for 33 years and I don’t have a filmy background. I don’t know if I am an insider or an outsider but I have never felt any discrimination. Our industry works on talent, it works on saleability, jo chalta hai wo bikta hai. That is what this industry or any other industry works on.” Chunky has seen quite a few highs and drastic lows in his career. While he started off as a solo hero made in the mould of 80s and 90s, he was soon playing the second lead. The actor famously delivered a blockbuster Aankhen in 1993 with Govinda, hoping that he would be swamped with work and realised that on the contrary, work just dried up.
Chunky, however, sees no point in blaming anyone else for his disappearance from the cinema screens in mid-90s. “Failure is quite easy to handle because no one is looking at you. Success is difficult to keep and not everyone could handle it. I could not keep my success. I had such a great run. By 93-94, it all came to an end and I had to go to Bangladesh and work there. Talent will always want to work,” says Chunky.
He remembers the time when children didn’t even recognise him. “There were two generations who had forgotten me. There was this little kid who came to me and asked my name. I was quite disturbed and I decided consciously that whatever film I do I will win over those children,” he said. The result was films like Housefull series with the character of Akhri Pasta, clearly leaning towards hamming. After Begum Jaan, Chunky took a turn towards negative roles. Zee5 web series Abhay 2 will see him as a serial killer. “Audience has been kind and welcoming with characters like Aakhri Pasta. For comedy, you need good writers, but villainy comes naturally to me,” he jokes.
