Putting yourself out there can be scary and fearful, says Ananya Panday

Mumbai: Ananya Panday on Friday said when she was starting her cinema journey, there was an element of fear but she has realised that it is more fulfilling to be real in front of people than trying to fake it.

The “Kho Gaye Hum Kahan” star has lent her voice to the character of Riley in the Hindi dubbed version of the upcoming Disney Pixar’s animated movie “Inside Out 2”.

At the film’s promotional event here, Panday said it is not easy to feel “toxic positive” all the time.

“It is one aspect that tied into really what I have been speaking about quite sometime. We can’t just feel toxic positive all of a sudden. We have to feel all the emotions, there has to be sadness to balance out happiness,” she told reporters here.

The 25-year-old actor said when she was starting out, she realised that she would never be able to make fear go away.

“As a young actor who started out when she was 18, there was fear and there always will be fear. Putting yourself out there can be scary and fearful. Someone once told me that by not being yourself you might get 100 people to like you but being yourself even if five people like you in the long run, then that is much more fulfilling. And that is what I try to go by as it will give me joy,” Pandey said.

“Inside Out 2” is a sequel to the Oscar-winning 2015 animated movie “Inside Out”, which depicted the inner workings of the mind of Riley, a young girl who adapts to her family’s relocation as five personified emotions administer her thoughts and actions.

Panday, also known for movies such as “Gehraiyaan” and “Dream Girl 2”, said the experience of dubbing for the Hindi version of “Inside Out 2” was quite liberating.

“When I dub for a character I’m playing, I usually do a lot of overthinking because I think about the back story and emotions during the shoot. When I dubbed for this, I realised I am a teenage girl and I just have to think how I was as a teenager.

“I watched ‘Inside Out’ again to get the little back story of Riley. I enjoyed it a lot. I was very free and wasn’t tied into doing something specific,” she said.

Set to be released in theatres in English and Hindi on June 14, “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of newly-minted teenager Riley (originally voiced by Kensington Tallman) just as Headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions.”

“Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment show up,” read the film’s synopsis.

“Inside Out 2” is directed by Kelsey Mann.

The English version of the film is voiced by Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Grace Lu, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Adele Exarchopoulos, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Paul Walter Hauser and Yvette Nicole Brown.