The queen of hearts, Hollywood's Next Generation Star, the new age dream girl of Bollywood – describe her with any name you want and it would perfectly fit Deepika Padukone. Such is an aura of this Bollywood's dimpled beauty who is ruling millions of hearts, flashing her million-dollar-smile.
The Bollywood's Mastani turned 32 on Friday, January 5, and what could be a better day than this to talk about her journey and how she made her way to the top to become the reigning queen of Bollywood.
Born on January 5, 1986, Deepika was just another ordinary girl who was very introvert with not many friends. Playing Badminton was always on her mind following her father Prakash Padukone, who was the first Indian shuttler to win the All England Open Badminton Championships and the World No1 in 1980.
"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," Deepika talked about her old routine in an interview in 2012.
But while she was pursuing her career in sports, she realised that she was born for something else which ultimately landed her in the glitzy world of Bollywood.
After becoming a successful model and appearing in many commercials and Himesh Reshammiya's single Naam Hai Tera, Deepika got noticed and was offered her big break with Shah Rukh Khan in Farah Khan directorial Om Shanti Om (2007).
But her dream debut was followed by films like Chandni Chowk To China (2009), Karthik Calling Karthik (2010) and Lafangey Parindey (2010) which didn't really have an impact on the audience and ultimately took her graph downhill. But it was not the end of the road for the actress.
After delivering a couple of flops and semi-hits, the purple patch hit her in when she delivered four consecutive blockbusters -- Race 2, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Chennai Express and Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela in 2013 which earned her the tag of 500-crore actress. And then, there was no looking back.
Her next big hit was Happy New Year (2014) which became the highest grossing film that year. She out-shined in her titular roles of Piku Banerjee in Shoojit Sircar's Piku (2015), Mastani in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani (2015) which skyrocketed her career graph and established her as the leading lady and one of the most bankable actresses in Bollywood.
And if that was not enough, her stars brought her immense fortune when she signed big Hollywood debut in xXx: Return Of The Xander (2017) opposite Vin Diesel. The news went viral among the fans who couldn't keep their calm watching their favourite superstar going overseas and making her country proud.
It was that time when she was named as the Hollywood's Next Generation Star by a popular magazine Vanity Fair along with other talented foreign actresses. Some of the other names featuring in the list included, Lily Collins (Mirror, Mirror), Riley Keough (Mad Max: Fury Road) and Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby).
Even though she was away from the Hindi film industry for almost an year, Deepika was always in the news for every move she made. And though her next film Padmavati (Padmavat) hangs in limbo, Deepika as the Queen of Chittor Rani Padmini looks regal.
