Stargazer: Ahaan Panday, Aneet Padda, Divya Dutta and Aaron Gill

Young and Electric

 They quickened everyone’s pulse with their pairing in Saiyaara (2025). Now Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda are the It Couple of Pepsi’s new marketing campaign, recalling the ‘Dil Maange More’ brand’s early days when it headlined the biggest young stars of the film industry. These are big shoes to fill for Panday and Padda, but so far they seem to be quite comfortable in them.

 Divya Dutta Steps Up

Divya Dutta is noted for her roles in many blockbusters. But streaming has given her a new identity with solid roles in series like Bandish Bandits (2024) and Mayasabha (2025), where she played a politician modelled on Indira Gandhi. Now in JioHotstar’s Chiraiya, Dutta plays a woman who stands up for her sister-in-law on the issue of marital rape. She says her charac­ter has to step out of her comfort zone and loving home. “The beauty of my role is that she lis­tens to somebody in a world of noise, even when her whole foundation is at stake,” says Dutta.

 From Stage to Screen

British-Indian actor Aaron Gill plays John Sparrow in BBC’s new drama The Other Bennet Sister. Although John is kind to Mary Bennet, the most ignored sister of Jane and Elizabeth, she is told to stop encouraging him by her status-conscious mother. Why? Because he runs a shop with a bell. This is Regency-era England and nothing could be worse than a gentleman who works ‘in trade’. Gill is a 2022 Guildhall School of Music & Drama graduate, and has done extensive theatre work.