Chunky Panday
Panday in 2012
Born	Suyash Panday (1962-09-26)26 September 1962 (age 63) Bombay,Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1987–present
Spouse	Bhavana Panday ​ (m. 1998)​
Children	2; includingAnanya
Father	Sharad Panday
Family	seePanday family

Suyash Panday (born 26 September 1962), better known by his stage nameChunky Panday, is an Indian actor who primarily appears in Hindi-language films.^[1][2]He made his acting debut in 1987 with the filmAag Hi Aag and gained recognition for his supporting role as Babban inTezaab (1988), which earned him a Filmfare nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Panday appeared in several successful multi-starrer films, includingPaap Ki Duniya,Khatron Ke Khiladi,Vishwatma,Aankhen, andLootere.

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Chunky Panday was born as Suyash Panday on 26 September 1962 inBombay,^[3][4][5] toSharad Panday (1934–2004), a heart surgeon known for the 'Panday shunt' workaround formitral valve replacement, and Snehlata Panday (1936–2011), a physician.^[6] Sharad performed India's first heart transplant.^[7]

Snehlata was a gynaecologist who opened a beauty parlour and a clinic for slimming during the 1980s, one of the first of its kind in India, some of her celebrity patients including Bollywood starsRekha andVinod Khanna, also authoring books and articles on the subject of weight loss.^[8] Snehlata was ofPunjabi descent.^[9] She was born Snehlata Kapoor inRawalpindi (nowPunjab, Pakistan) before partition.^[7] Lt. Col.Raj Kumar Kapoor, a retired Indian Army officer turned character actor, who had launchedShah Rukh Khan with the television seriesFauji (1989), was his maternal uncle.^[10][11]

He has one younger brother Chikki Panday, a businessman married to wellness coach, Deanne Panday.^[12]

Before entering films, he was in the same acting school asAkshay Kumar, serving as his acting instructor.^[13]

Panday debuted his acting career with the 1987 multi-starer filmAag Hi Aag oppositeNeelam Kothari. Film producerPahlaj Nihalani gave Panday his first break in 1987 by signing him up for two films, his debut film andPaap Ki Duniya. His second successful film wasPaap Ki Duniya withSunny Deol andNeelam Kothari. Subsequently, Panday appeared in many multi-hero films from 1987 to 1993. In 1988, Panday was appreciated for his supporting role in N. Chandra's filmTezaab featuringAnil Kapoor andMadhuri Dixit. Panday played the character of Babban, Munna's (Anil Kapoor) friend.^[14] For his performance inTezaab, Panday was nominated for theFilmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Since then he has appeared in many films with mixed success throughout the late 1980s and 1990s. Most of his films where he had the leading role did not fare well at the box office. In most films, he was cast in supporting roles to senior actors likeRajesh Khanna,Dharmendra,Jeetendra,Sunny Deol andSanjay Dutt. Some of those hit films with him in second lead, arePaap Ki Duniya (1988),Khatron Ke Khiladi (1988),Ghar Ka Chiraag (1989),Nakabandi,Zahreelay (1990),Rupaye Dus Karod,Vishwatma (1992),Lootere (1993) andAankhen (1993). His solo hit wasParda Hai Parda (1992).

The advent of the 1990s saw a new wave of actors likeAamir Khan,Salman Khan andShah Rukh Khan taking on roles as "romantic heroes", whileAkshay Kumar,Suniel Shetty andAjay Devgan grabbed the "action hero" roles, whereasSunny Deol,Anil Kapoor,Jackie Shroff,Govinda continued as more versatile established actors. Panday found it difficult to slot himself in either category. In addition, by the late nineties, solo-hero films were back in vogue instead of the multi-hero films in which Panday was generally cast and Panday was not seen as a marketable hero for solo hero films.^{[citation needed]}

Panday grew increasingly tired of playing second fiddle to more prominent actors, but had difficulty being seen as marketable, other than supporting household names. "I was offered hero ke bhai ka (lead actor's brother) roles," he said. "I (told them), 'Boss, not happening.'"^[15] Due to a lack of work in Bollywood, he moved to act as hero in Bangladesh films. In 1995, he was offered his first films as the lead hero in Bangladeshi films. He acted in six films between 1995 and 1997 as hero in Bangladesh and all of them were successful.^[16] Between 1997 and 2002, he received minimal work in Bollywood, playing supporting roles in low-budget films likeTirchhi Topiwale,Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan,Kaun Rokega Mujhe andJwalamukhi.

Panday returned to Bollywood in 2003 playing minor supporting roles inQayamat: City Under Threat,Elaan,Don: The Chase Begins Again,Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost andApna Sapna Money Money.

In 2005, he played an underworld gangster in theRam Gopal Varma filmD – Underworld Badshah. Later, directorRam Gopal Varma roped him in forDarwaaza Bandh Rakho, a dark comedy thriller in which he played one of four robbers who hold a family hostage.

Between the years of 2006 to 2010, Panday would star in small comedic roles, settling into a reputation of being comic relief. The role that earned him the most success was playing the character of Indo-Italian "Aakhiri Pasta" in the 2010 comedy hitHousefull. His catchphrase from the movie that is often quoted is an accented "I'm-a joking!" His role was so memorable that he reprised the role in the sequelsHousefull 2 in 2012,Housefull 3 in 2016,Housefull 4 in 2019 andHousefull 5 in 2025.

In regards to his film selection since returning to acting in Bollywood, Panday has stated that he prefers not to play a hero nowadays because there is less pressure on him if the film fails and it's much more fun playing interesting characters and showing his range.^[17]

While Panday's second stint in Bollywood has mainly consisted of starring as a character actor, he doesn't want to be pigeonholed into only doing comic roles. "I don't think I am restricting myself to doing only comedy. I am hoping that someone offers me something else. It requires a lot of guts for someone to cast me in something else. I am just hoping that someone sees something else in me other than comedy."^[18]

This hope was realised with Panday starring as villains in the filmsBegum Jaan,Prassthanam,Saaho,Sardar and web seriesAbhay.

Panday married Bhavana Panday (née Khosla) in January 1998.^[19] They have two daughters,Ananya, an actress, and Rysa.^{[20][21][22][23]}

Wikimedia Commons has media related toChunky Pandey.

• Chunky Panday atIMDb
• Chunky Panday atBollywood Hungama

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