Birthday Special Chunky Pandey: I share my birthday with legend Dev Anand

Chaitanya  Padukone 

Today,  rejuvenated star-actor and ‘family-man’ Chunky Pandey celebrates his 60^th birthday .  But nothing like those wild, wacko, lavish homely party-celebrations that Chunky used to host during the 80’s and 90’s , which this senior film correspondent attended every year after year. That’s because I  knew Suyash   ( that’s Chunky’s real name) very well, as a popular model,  much before he even became a movie-actor. Today, when I wished Chunky personally, we recollected a few memorable masti-bhara moments at  his famous annual star-studded parties. “Since I share my janamdin with legend Dev Anand, I guess I am evergreen and make people go green with envy, “ laughs the witty Pandey who has been highly appreciated for his riveting villainish roles in both blockbusters ‘Saaho’ and ‘Prassthanam’ .  The versatile Chunky who has had a string of mega-hits to his credit including  ‘Aag Hi Aag’, ‘Aankhen’, ‘Tezaab’ , ‘Paap Ki Duniya’ and the ‘Housefull’ series, hates to be stereotyped. “

Variety is the spice of acting life. Although my negative roles have immense recall value ,  even crazy, comical characters ( like ‘Aakhri Paasta’) are loved by all my fans and the aam-janata. My birthday resolution is that I should have ideally four movie releases every year,” shrugs the Panday who will soon be seen in ‘Jawani Jaaneman’ and ‘Housefull 4’  in funny roles. Would he be game to share screen-space with own star-daughter Ananya Panday ? “ Of course I would love to co-star with Ananya. The roles have to be super-exciting and it could be her emotional father , elder brother or even a classy role with negative shades.  Ananya has proved her  ‘wow’ caliber with ‘SOTY-2’.  If I had the option I would have titled her upcoming movie ‘Pati Patni Aur ‘Wow’, ” chuckles Chunky.