Movies: Deepika Padukone

She joins the bandwagon of actors promoting fitness books or DVDs

Star value works for everything, from ads to box office collections. Now publishers seem to be jumping on to the celebrity bandwagon, getting Bollywood stars to endorse all sorts of books, whether they had a part in the actual writing process or no. And staying in shape seems to be the route most of them take – at least, the biggest of the B-town biggies do. Kareena did her bit with Rujuta Diwekar’s fitness book, Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight, talking about how she moved from pretty to smoking hot, with a Size Zero body gained by not starving, but by eating sensibly and working out, or so she said. Shahrukh Khan wrote the foreward to Anupama Chopra’s new book, First Day First Show, saying that ‘It is a portrait of the industry with all its contradictions and instability’. And now Deepika Padukone promotes Namita Jain’s book, Figure it Out: The Ultimate Guide to Teen Fitness, saying that ‘For a ‘wow’ body that you will love, follow the essential fitness tips in this book.’ And if that ‘wow’ is anything like Deepika’s own figure, with its endless legs and flatter-than-flat middle, we can just see the crowds clamouring for copies of this one!

Deepika Padukone is an Indian actress and a former model. Padukone made her acting debut in the 2006 Kannada film Aishwarya. The following year, she made her Hindi film debut in the blockbuster Om Shanti Om which earned her the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award.

Early life and background

Deepika was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her family moved to Bangalore, Karnataka, India, when she was eleven months old. Deepika is of Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin origin, and her mother tongue is Konkani. Her father, Prakash Padukone, is a retired badminton player of international repute, and her mother is a travel agent. Padukone also has a younger sister, Anisha, born on February 2, 1991.[3]

Padukone attended Sophia High School in Bangalore, and completed her pre-university studies at Mount Carmel College Bangalore. While in high school she played badminton at the state level. However, she was not keen on pursuing a career as a badminton player.

Career

Modeling

While in college, Padukone pursued a career in modeling.[7] She was spotted in a ramp competition in NLS, Bangalore.[citation needed] Over the years, she has modeled for such Indian brand names as Liril, Dabur Lal powder, Close-Up toothpaste and Limca, and has been "brand ambassador" for the Jewels of India retail jewelry show.[8] The cosmetics company Maybelline made her its international spokesperson.[9]

At the fifth annual Kingfisher Fashion Awards she was awarded the title "Model of the Year".[10] Shortly afterward, she was chosen as one of the models for the Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar for 2006 and won two trophies at the Idea Zee Fashion Awards: "Female Model of the Year - (Commercial Assignments)" and "Fresh Face of the Year".[11][12] Padukone was also chosen as the brand ambassador of Kingfisher Airlines and later Levi Strauss and Tissot SA.[13] In addition, she appeared in the music video for Himesh Reshammiya's song Naam Hai Tera.

Acting

In 2006, Padukone made her cinematic debut in the Kannada film Aishwarya opposite actor Upendra. She later made a successful Bollywood debut in 2007 with Farah Khan's blockbuster Om Shanti Om opposite Shahrukh Khan.[14][15] Her performance was well received, earning the actress a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award as well as her first Filmfare Best Actress nomination. Taran Adarsh from indiaFM noted, "Deepika has all it takes to be a top star — the personality, the looks and yes, she's supremely talented too. Standing in the same frame as SRK and getting it right is no small achievement. She comes as a whiff of fresh air!"[16] Padukone was then seen in Siddharth Anand's romantic comedy Bachna Ae Haseeno opposite Ranbir Kapoor and alongside Bipasha Basu and Minissha Lamba. The film, which released on 15 August 2008, performed reasonably well at the box office. Her next film Chandni Chowk To China, released on 16 January 2009, and was a critical and commercial disaster. Padukone's fourth release Love Aaj Kal, released on 31 July 2009 and proved to be one of the biggest hits of 2009.[17] Her first release in 2010 was Excel Entertainment’s Karthik Calling Karthik opposite Farhan Akhtar.

Other work

In 2009, Deepika started writing weekly columns for HT City, the lifestyle supplement of Hindustan Times. These columns appear online on social network, Desimartini.[18]

Personal life

In March 2008, Padukone began dating Ranbir Kapoor, her co-star from the film Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008).[19] The couple broke up in November 2009.