Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone is slowly moving up the success ladder following her performances in movies such as Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Chennai Express. The secret behind her improving acting skills is that she never gives up and she continues to work hard despite hardships.
“I feel ups and downs are a part of one’s career and this totally depends on how you take it. You can either be knocked down by the negative things or you can take them in a positive way and learn from them,” Deepika said. “Maybe because I am from a sports background, I don’t give up easily. I am a fighter,” added the daughter of former All England badminton champion Prakash Padukone.
After being panned as wooden-faced for years, the 27-year-old’s last two films marked her coming of age as an actor where she proved she has the potential to do better than just look glamorous on the screen.
“It feels nice to hear this. I have been working really hard. I know I have pushed myself and sacrificed a lot of personal and family time. In the end, if the result is like that, you don’t mind. But I think success is relative. If people are saying it’s my year, it depends on my films,” she said.
“I have to focus all my energies on my upcoming films and I hope they are better. It does not get easier to live up to all of that. I want love, success with every film and the experience increases,” added the actor who faced setbacks with Karthik Calling Karthik, Lafangey Parindey and Break Ke Baad.
She started her career in Hindi films with Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om and later worked with the likes of Imtiaz Ali, Ashutosh Gowariker, Prakash Jha, Ayan Mukerji and now with Rohit Shetty in Chennai Express.
Deepika feels Shetty comes from a different school of film-making. “He has his own school and style. It was a new style for me. His way of shot-taking and directing his actors is different. He has everything planned. Maybe because it’s a comedy, there was no space for improvisation,” she said.
But the actor did improvise in the fixed framework to look convincing as a Tamil girl and was rather successful in her endeavour.
Deepika believes in doing her homework and spends time preparing for her roles. “Preparation is definitely important, but it depends on the kinds of roles I do. Like I was [able to] completely identify with my character in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani; I had to be myself and I didn’t have to actually prepare for it,” said Deepika.
“My character in Cocktail was different from my personality. Homi Adajania took me to London, showed me how girls dress and behave there. I had not seen that kind of lifestyle before. For Chennai Express too, I met people and learned the accent,” she added.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 19th, 2013.
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