How Does Ananya Panday Deal With Imposter Syndrome?

Ananya Panday, who was recently seen in the OTT dramas Call Me Bae and CTRL, has opened up about her ongoing battle with imposter syndrome. In a candid conversation with News18, the actor shared how she often questions her own talent and constantly seeks validation on film sets.

Ananya Panday On Dealing With Imposter Syndrome 

Speaking about her experience, Ananya revealed, "My imposter syndrome comes from something as simple as when someone says my name. During interviews and stuff, I feel like my name isn't really mine, and it makes me feel like a third person. That pushes me to suddenly become like someone else."

She also mentioned how surreal it feels to see herself in the spotlight, adding, "When I see myself on a billboard, I feel like it's not me that I'm looking at. The same thing happens when I watch one of my films. I watch them like an audience member and forget that it's actually me on screen." 

Ananya further spoke about her pursuit of perfection on set and how her self-criticism drives her to seek reassurance. "I constantly need validation because I'm very hard on myself. Even when a director okays my shot, I'm never happy with it. I always feel like I could've done it better," she confessed, adding, "If it were up to me, I'd reshoot everything all the time because I know I can always improve."

What is Imposter Syndrome?

For those unaware, Imposter syndrome is when someone feels like they don’t deserve their success, when they feel like an imposter in their current role -- when they feel like they just don’t belong. Psychologists have found that women feel the imposter syndrome more than men. Among the successful women who have felt like imposters are Emma Watson, Kate Winslet and Maya Angelou. 

We spoke to a few women about wheather they feel like imposters even after achieving success on their own merits. Ritu Soni Srivastava, founder of weight loss app Obino, says that the imposter syndrome definitely exists more amongst women, and that women aren’t really able to accept and claim their own success and therefore, always attribute it to someone else.

"One of the most common things that you will hear successful women say is ‘I was really lucky! I had a supportive family, a great boss, a wonderful mentor…” and so on and so forth in the same vein.

At times, when people say complimentary things to me, I get an amazed feeling and then an acute feeling of shame, as if I am pretending to be someone else and taking credit for someone else’s accomplishments. And strangely enough, this feeling has grown more acute with age, as if with maturity, comes the realisation of how incidental success really is."

Bestselling author Rashmi Bansal says that she doesn't feel like an imposter, however, she is sometimes taken aback when people call her a celebrity. She says there is  a difference between feeling like an imposter and being over confident.

"I feel one should remain grounded. I am the same person I was when I hadn't written bestselling books. I know I am not perfect. But I have the ability to communicate in a certain way." She says that it is true that women talk less about their achievements. "I would hope work speaks for itself. But sometimes, we have to say what we are doing. Women entrepreneurs give a lot of credit to other people."

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