Aryan Khan’s debut series, The Ba***ds of Bollywood, is making waves since its release last Thursday. The show has been praised, and its scenes and dialogues are becoming viral memes, proof of success in these digital times. But a few memes have been propagating falsehoods, too. One such is the claim that Anya Singh, the actor who plays Lakshya’s talent manager Sanya on the show, is the daughter of Shah Rukh Khan’s real-life manager, Pooja Dadlani.
Is Anya Singh Pooja Dadlani’s daughter?
There are many Instagram Reels showing a cute moment between Shah Rukh and Anya at the show’s preview launch last month, where the superstar had compared Anya’s character to Pooja Dadlani. And that’s where the confusion began, Anya feels. In an exclusive chat with HT, the actor says, “It was surprising. I think people misunderstood when Shah Rukh sir compared me to Pooja, and I think there was a hiccup in translating it.”
But then she adds with a smile, “But I never denied it.” Anya explains, “I went with it. Our show is all about myths, so I thought, ‘Why bust all of them?'”
‘Pooja and I laughed about it’
The Ba***ds of Bollywood is about an actor called Aasmaan Singh (Lakshya) who is navigating his first steps in the Hindi film industry. Anya plays Sanya, Aasmaan’s manager. Introducing the actor at the show’s preview launch in August, Shah Rukh had quipped Anya was ‘very much like my Pooja’.
The actor adds, “When I met Pooja at the screening, I told her, ‘People think I am your daughter’, and both of us just laughed about it. Neither of us was affected by it.”
The Ba***ds of Bollywood is produced by Shah Rukh’s Red Chillies Entertainment, and Anya is glad she got a chance to interact with the superstar because of her role in the show. “Shah Rukh sir knows my name today, and I only want to hug Aryan because of that,” she says.
The Ba***ds of Bollywood, directed by Aryan Khan, also stars Sahher Bambba, Bobby Deol, Mona Singh, Raghav Juyal, and Manoj Pahwa. It is streaming on Netflix.