Deepika Prakash Padukone (; born 5 January 1986) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Hindi films. Her accolades include three Filmfare Awards. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018 and awarded her the Time100 Impact Award in 2022.
Padukone, the daughter of the badminton player Prakash Padukone, was born in Copenhagen and raised in Bangalore. As a teenager, she played badminton in national level championships but left her career in the sport to become a fashion model. She soon received offers for film roles and made her acting debut in 2006 as the title character of the Kannada film Aishwarya. Padukone then played a dual role opposite Shah Rukh Khan in her first Bollywood release, the romance Om Shanti Om (2007), which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Padukone received praise for her starring role in the romance Love Aaj Kal (2009), but this was followed by a brief setback.
The romantic comedy Cocktail (2012) marked a turning point in her career, and she gained further success with starring roles in the romantic comedies Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Chennai Express (both 2013), the heist comedy Happy New Year (2014), Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period dramas Bajirao Mastani (2015) and Padmaavat (2018), and the Hollywood action film XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017). She also received critical acclaim for playing a character based on Juliet in Bhansali's Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013) and a headstrong daughter in Piku (2015), winning two Filmfare Awards for Best Actress. Following a short hiatus and producing two films under her own company Ka Productions, Padukone took on roles in top-grossing action films, including Pathaan (2023), Fighter and Kalki 2898 AD (both 2024).
Padukone is the founder of The Live Love Laugh Foundation, which creates awareness on mental health in India, for which she received the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award in 2018. She also participates in stage shows, has designed her own line of clothing for women, and is a prominent celebrity endorser for brands and products. Padukone has walked the Met Gala red carpet in Manhattan thrice: in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Her other ventures include startup investments and a self-care brand. Padukone is married to her frequent co-star Ranveer Singh, with whom she has a daughter.
Early life and modelling career Deepika Prakash Padukone was born on 5 January 1986 in Copenhagen, Denmark, to Konkani-speaking Indian parents. Her father, Prakash Padukone, is a former professional badminton player and her mother, Ujjala, is a travel agent. Her younger sister, Anisha, is a golfer. Her paternal grandfather, Ramesh, was a secretary of the Mysore Badminton Association. The family relocated to Bangalore, India when Padukone was a year old. She was educated at Bangalore's Sophia High School and completed her pre-university education at Mount Carmel College. She subsequently enrolled at the Indira Gandhi National Open University for a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with her modelling career.
Padukone has said that she was socially awkward as a child and did not have many friends. The focus of her life was badminton, which she played competitively from a young age. Describing her daily routine in a 2012 interview, Padukone said, "I would wake up at five in the morning, go for physical training, go to school, again go for playing badminton, finish my homework, and go to sleep." Padukone continued to pursue a career in badminton throughout her school years and played the sport in national level championships. She also played baseball in a few state level tournaments. While concentrating on her education and sporting career, Padukone also worked as a child model, first appearing in a couple of advertising campaigns at the age of eight. In the tenth grade, she changed focus and decided to become a fashion model. She later explained, "I realised that I was playing the game only because it ran in the family. So, I asked my father if I could give up the game and he wasn't upset at all." In 2004, she began a full-time career as a model under the tutelage of Prasad Bidapa.
Early in her career, Padukone gained recognition with a television commercial for the soap Liril and modelled for various other brands and products. In 2005, she made her runway debut at the Lakmé Fashion Week for designer Suneet Varma and won Model of the Year at the Kingfisher Fashion Awards. Padukone's fame increased when she appeared in a popular print campaign for the 2006 Kingfisher Calendar; the designer Wendell Rodricks commented, "Since Aishwarya Rai, we haven't had a girl as beautiful and fresh." Rodricks had spotted her at a Ganjam jewellery class he was teaching and signed her up with the Matrix talent agency. At the age of 21, Padukone relocated to Mumbai and stayed at her aunt's home. In 2006, she gained recognition by featuring in the music video for Himesh Reshammiya's song "Naam Hai Tera" for the album Aap Ka Surroor.
Padukone soon began to receive offers for film roles. Believing herself to be too inexperienced as an actor, she enrolled for a course at Anupam Kher's film academy. Following much media speculation, the director Farah Khan, who had noticed her in Reshammiya's music video, made the decision to cast her for a role in her upcoming film, then named Happy New Year. Rodricks also takes credit in helping her get the role. Khan was looking for a model to star in the film, and got in touch with Malaika Arora. Rodricks, for whom Padukone had been modelling for roughly two years then, recommended her to Arora, a close friend of his, who in turn recommended her to Khan.
Acting career
Film breakthrough and career struggles (2006–2011) Padukone made her acting debut with Aishwarya (2006), a Kannada film directed by Indrajit Lankesh. The romantic comedy was a remake of the Telugu film Manmadhudu, and she was cast in the title role opposite the actor Upendra. The film proved to be a commercial success. R. G. Vijayasarathy of Rediff.com was appreciative of Padukone's screen presence but added that "she needs to work on her emotional scenes." By the end of 2006, Farah Khan's Happy New Year was shelved, and Khan had instead cast Padukone for the masala film Om Shanti Om (2007). Set against the backdrop of the Hindi film industry, the film tells the story of a struggling actor who is reincarnated to avenge the death of a film star. Shah Rukh Khan starred as the lead, and Padukone featured in dual roles of a star in the 1970s, and later, an aspiring actress. In preparation, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her voice was dubbed by the voice artist Mona Ghosh Shetty. For one of the songs in the film, "Dhoom Taana", Padukone drew upon Indian classical dance, and according to Dorling Kindersley, "mesmeriz[ed] audiences" by using hasta mudras (hand gestures). Om Shanti Om emerged as the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year, with a global revenue of . Taran Adarsh of the entertainment portal Bollywood Hungama opined that she had "all it takes to be a top star", and she was awarded with the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award and received her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress nomination. Bollywood Hungama reported that the success of Om Shanti Om proved a breakthrough for her.
Padukone next played one of star Ranbir Kapoor's love interests in Siddharth Anand's romantic comedy Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008). The film was a financial success, but Namrata Joshi of Outlook dismissed her performance as "mannequin-like and utterly lack[ing] fire and zing". Her first release of 2009 came alongside Akshay Kumar in the kung fu comedy Chandni Chowk to China, in which she portrayed dual roles of Indian-Chinese twin sisters. Produced by Warner Bros., it had one of the widest international releases given to an Indian film. Padukone learned jujutsu and performed her own stunts. Despite the hype, Chandni Chowk To China was a financial failure, failing to recoup its budget. She appeared alongside Saif Ali Khan in the romantic drama Love Aaj Kal from the writer-director Imtiaz Ali. The film documented the changing value of relationships among the youth and had Padukone play the part of Meera Pandit, a head-strong career woman. With a worldwide gross of , Love Aaj Kal proved to be the third highest-grossing Hindi film of 2009. Aniruddha Guha of Daily News and Analysis said that Padukone "delivers the best of her four performances so far", and she was awarded with another Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.
Padukone had five film releases in 2010. In the psychological thriller Karthik Calling Karthik, she played the supportive girlfriend of a depressed man (played by Farhan Akhtar). Derek Elley of Variety found the film to be "thinly plotted" but considered "the uncomplicated ingenuousness of Padukone" to be the film's highlight. Her most financially profitable film that year was Sajid Khan's -grossing comedy film Housefull in which she featured alongside an ensemble cast headlined by Akshay Kumar. Critic Raja Sen described the film as a "festival of bad acting" and attributed Padukone's poor performance to her "plasticky expressions". Pradeep Sarkar's drama Lafangey Parindey (2010) starred Padukone as a blind girl determined to win a skating competition, for which she observed the interactions of blind people and rehearsed scenes while blindfolded. The Hindu Sudhish Kamath was impressed by the "considerable restraint" in her performance. Her next role was opposite Imran Khan in the romantic comedy Break Ke Baad. CNN-IBN's Rajeev Masand found the film to be "watchable largely for the performance of its leading lady". Padukone's final release of 2010 was Ashutosh Gowariker's period film Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey opposite Abhishek Bachchan. Based on the book Do and Die, the film is a retelling of the 1930 Chittagong armoury raid. Bachchan featured as the revolutionary leader Surya Sen and Padukone played Kalpana Dutta, his confidante. Padukone said that she was unable to research her role as there was very little information on Dutta and relied on Gowarikar's direction. Barring Housefull, none of these films were commercially successful.
Padukone began 2011 with an item number in the film Dum Maaro Dum. She referred to it as "the wildest song any actress has done"; the song's sexual content attracted controversy including a court case for indecency. Her next film was Prakash Jha's socio-political drama Aarakshan, which dealt with caste-based reservations in India. Trade journalists had high expectations for the film which ultimately flopped at the box office. Critical reaction was largely negative, though Pratim D. Gupta mentioned Padukone as the most "refreshing thing" about it. Her final appearance that year was in the comedy Desi Boyz alongside Kumar and John Abraham, a role that failed to propel her career forward. The series of poorly received films led critics to perceive that Padukone had "[lost] her sparkle."
Established actress (2012–2016)