In Call Me Bae, Ananya Panday plays an heiress who finds herself hustling in the newsrooms of Mumbai after losing her wealth and privileges. The comedy-drama which opened to rave reviews, marks the Kho Gaye Hum Kahan actress’ OTT series debut. Joining her is an ensemble cast that includes Niharika Dutt, Muskkaan Jaferi, Vihaan Samat, Varun Sood, Gurfateh Pirzada and more. As Bae, Ananya navigates the line between subverting stereotypes and indulging in self-referential humour. In an exclusive chat with Filmfare, the actress and her co-stars opened up about relating to their characters, sisterhood and more.

Call Me Bae references Kareena Kapoor’s iconic Poo from K3G. How much of an influence has she had on you?

Ananya: A lot more than even I think I understand. Kareena, with the kind of roles that she’s done, has really balanced her career and her trajectory by doing a lot of fun masala commercial films. But then she’s also done the characters, like in Omkara and Jab We Met and everything that has a lot of depth. So she’s done such a variety of work to really make girls feel like they can do anything. No one can put you in a box because she’s not let anyone put her in a box. She’ll do a Chameli and then she’ll do a Kambakt Ishq also. So she does everything. That’s on screen and then off-screen, she’s so unabashedly herself. She makes mistakes, but she owns it. She’s confident. The way she’s owned pregnancy and just flaunting her bump everywhere she goes. Now she’s working, even though she’s a mother of two kids. She’s just been inspiring at every age. And she’s just been herself, which I love. That’s given me the confidence to be myself.

Bae’s character also reminds you of Schitt’s Creek’s Alexis or Gossip Girl’s Blair Waldorf even. Did you look at these popular characters for reference?

Ananya: I think they all fall under a similar genre or a theme. You could say that Call Me Bae follows a similar format or theme. But once you watch the show, there’s so much more to it. The characters are very unique. There are so many comparisons already. And honestly, when I also started, I was like she’s a bit like this and a bit like that. But when you go deeper into it you kind of discover her and all the characters around her. They’re all too unique to really compare them to anyone.

Bae is so Legally Blonde coded. Do you find yourself having to prove that you can be stylish yet intellectual?

Ananya: When you’re an actor, sign up for your life to be under public scrutiny. So it is a part of our job to be judged on the way we look and people talking about everything but our acting most of the time. But I think it’s up to us to protect what’s important and keep our personal life as personal as we possibly can and to just let our work speak loudly.

Bae’s love life is complicated. Did you draw from your personal life at all?

Ananya: I don’t think I take anything from my personal life into that. It’s about putting characters on screen or playing characters that are flawed. It’s more about showing people out there that not everyone is perfect. And people do make mistakes. They pay for their mistakes also. But then that’s not the end of the world. People grow and they learn and they change. It’s also important to understand that every relationship is different. No one but the two people in a relationship can decide what a relationship is. It’s up to them. And to just be a little less judgmental about dynamics that you see in your life. That’s something that I learnt a lot about on Gehraiyaan when we were shooting that film. And that’s something I took on to Bae as well.

A scene in the show references the viral “struggle” comment Siddhant Chaturvedi made years ago. How do you look back on that?

Ananya: It happened so long ago. Honestly, I’ve grown up so much since then, it was something that I said six years ago. It was taken out of context, and I’ve talked so much about this. So I don’t really think about it. People still kind of talk about it. When it came to the show, the only reason that I felt comfortable to do it was because it made a lot of sense in context to the character. More than being self-referential, as everyone knows, I’m always one to laugh at jokes and I’m pretty cool about that. But the reason it’s in the show is that in the flow of the scene, it makes sense to Bae’s character.

Did you find yourself relating to your characters?

Ananya: It may seem at a glance that Bae and I are similar, but actually we’re very different from each other. I would say that Ahana from Kho Gaye Hum Khan and I were more similar to each other with similar life experiences. So I could draw a lot of myself for Ahana. But when it comes to Bae, she’s really out of this world. I don’t even know how to describe her. I don’t know anyone around me who’s like Bae. She actually exists outside of reality. While I didn’t take too much of myself, there were qualities in her that I liked, which I hope to take away from the show – her kindness, positivity and general upbeat nature.

Muskaan: Absolutely, especially with the humour and just the whole vibe is relatable. The minute I read it, a lot of it resonated with me.

Niharika: The writers have also tried to do that. It’s so interesting and so fresh to have three girls and a story about that. The writers wrote about the fact that my character is hustling in Mumbai and trying to get somewhere and trying to almost beat time to be able to achieve her dreams. That was very relatable to me as well.

Do you think filmmakers are approaching you with the roles you’re looking for Gehraiyaan and Kho Gaye Hum Kahan?

Ananya: I really hope that they do look at me differently. And as you said, I am feeling that with the kind of roles that are coming my way now. There’s a lot more to chew on. I have set the benchmark slightly higher for myself because I don’t want to go down from here. I want to get better and better. And that’s only possible with the kind of films that I do in the future.

What is your relationship with social media?

Niharika: Of course, it’s unavoidable. And I feel like it’s created in a way that is an extension of ourselves and that we have to keep going back to it. Kudos to the creators, I guess, because they’ve been very successful. I’m trying to wean off of it and I’m trying to use it as a tool rather than it uses me. The struggle is still on.

Muskaan: It’s quite a tough cookie because it tends to consume so much of your time. You need to filter the things you’re watching because yes, it’s important for work. We also share memes, etc. But now I’ve become more selective about who I’m following and what I’m consuming. I’ve also put in one of those timers.

Ananya: I haven’t even set reminders because I’m going to feel worse when I put it all off.

How important is it for female actors to follow the behen code?

Niharika: When I was new, it was really helpful to have women who were working in the film industry, who I could call and speak to and just talk to about what I’m going through. Can you help me? Can you give me some advice? So it was always lovely to have such people. My sister Avalokita Dutt is a writer-filmmaker, and a lot of her friends are almost like sisters to me. So it was always lovely to have people to go to.

Ananya: I think for me, on a human level, they are probably the only people in the world who fully understand what I’m feeling or what I’m going through. If anything happens, it’s easiest to talk to them. So on a simple human level, sometimes to just have a conversation and to have someone truly understand and hear you out, is really important.

Muskaan: Yes, because you understand the same world and the grammar. Even your best friends are there for you, but if they’re not from the industry, they can only understand so much. But when co-stars talk to each other, if we have any problems, we know the world. And just to know that we’re not just always fighting each other. We can help each other grow and become better people and better actors, that is good to know. If even one woman is doing it, we can do it. You paved the way, do it.

Do you think women are still judged for their interests or are people more accepting of female-centric shows and movies now?

Niharika: I think chick flicks should always be taken seriously. It’s a genre to reckon with. It’s an undying genre that will always be classic.

Muskaan: I do feel like sometimes it has a bit of a negative connotation to it.

Ananya: But everyone watches it at the end of the day. Everybody’s always watching it. Whoever says that, “Oh we don’t watch chick flicks,” they are all sitting and watching it.

Call Me Bae is currently streaming on OTT.