Over-thinking, emotions, positivity – ‘Inside Out’ with Ananya Pandey

Ananya Pandey is the face of Riley in ‘Inside Out 2’, a sequel to the hugely successful animated film. Ananya was present for a Hindi trailer launch and spoke about watching the film with her friends and why she chose to be the voice of the much loved character of grown up Riley. 

Remembering watching the first film with Suhana Khan and her other friends, Ananya said, “Today, children prefer to sit at home and watch films. I hope they see films, where they can learn about life and get that experience. I remember I saw this film when I was in America with my best friend Suhana. I was 17 years old. I really liked it and felt connected with it immediately. I hope the young generation watches this, because they understand life as it teaches you a lot about life.”

Revealing which character has left a mark on her from the past films, she said, “There are so many, such as Simba who fights for himself to make space for himself in the world in ‘The Lion King’. People have expectations from him to be his own person. I really like the Scar factor in ‘The Lion King’, and would like to know his back story about what happened to him when he was a kid. I also liked ‘Finding Nemo’.” 

Sharing her experience of dubbing for Riley’s character, Ananya said, “When I dubbed for the character, I usually do a lot of over-thinking, because I think about the story behind it and what emotions to show during the shoot. When I dubbed for this, I realised I am a teenage girl and I have to think like that – how was I as a teenager? How was my voice while feeling certain emotions? I watched ‘Inside Out’ again to get the little back story of Riley. I really enjoyed it a lot. I felt free and wasn’t tied to doing something specific. Normally, when I feel all the emotions in one go, I need the world to handle me.”

Elaborating further on the kind of emotions she faced while completing this task, Ananya said, “I dive into a lot of thinking for many years when it comes to positivity. We can be just toxic positive. We have to feel all the emotions, there has to be sadness, but definitely as a young actor who started out, there has always been fear. Putting yourself out there can be scary, but 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 for a long run, that is more fulfilling. That’s the thing I go by.”

The first part of ‘Inside Out’ released nearly a decade ago and it went on to become a huge hit as well as garner good reviews all over the world. The second part is going to release on June 14.