Deepika Padukone, born 1986, is an Indian supermodel. She is also the daughter of former World badminton Champion Prakash Padukone.
Deepika has had modelling appearances in print and television advertising campaigns for Liril soap, Close-Up toothpaste and Limca, receiving many prestigious modelling offers, including brand ambassadorship of the Jewels of India, an annual jewellery exhibition. She hit the international scene when Maybelline made her their new international cover face.
At the fifth annual Kingfisher Fashion Awards, for Indian models and designers, she was awarded the title of Model of the Year. Shortly afterwards, she was chosen as one of the models for the Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar for 2006, thus cementing her reputation as a supermodel. She also bagged two trophies at the Idea Zee F Awards in 2006 - Female Model of the year (Commercial Assignments) and Fresh Face of the year.
Like many successful models before her Deepika is turning to acting in Bollywood. She started by starring in the music video for “Naam Hai Tera,” a song from the pop album Aap Ka Suroor, an independent album by popular Bollywood singer-composer Himesh Reshammiya.
Deepika recently made her cinematic debut in a Kannada film, Aishwarya, directed by Indrajit Lankesh. Her co-stars in the movie is top Kannada hero Upendra. The film has already been successful at the box-office, and Deepika has received reviews which praise her for her great screen presence. Reportedly, she has also signed on three Hindi movies - Priyadarshan’s forthcoming film, Pirate, Farah Khan’s second directorial venture, Om Shanti Om and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Delhi 6. All three are slated for a 2007 release. However, Deepika has categorically denied ever having met Priyadarshan, and claims she is not doing his film. Khan’s and Mehra’s films, however, seem very much on the anvil, though she is reluctant to talk about them with the press and won’t confirm or deny developments. Deepika was also signed a Tamil film opposite Surya entitled Vaaranam Aayiram to be directed by Gautham Menon but backed out at the last moment as the dates required for the film were clashing with Om Shanti Om.
