From Bollywood blockbusters to addressing mental health, here’s how actor and investor Deepika Padukone inspires every woman
On Deepika Padukone’s 34th birthday, we give you four different reasons (among many others) that endear the Bollywood star to millions of her fans.
Gone are the days when stars were just “actors” content to be part of the film industry. Today, there are doing much more than being on the big screen. They are entrepreneurs, social ambassadors, and are more vocal than ever before about what they believe in.
It goes without saying that Deepika Padukone is all these and more. A star badminton player hailing from a brilliant sports pedigree, she chose to become a model and later kick-start a successful career in films. Her entry into Bollywood was as dramatic as it can get – being discovered from a Himesh Reshammiya music video and straight into a reincarnation potboiler with Shah Rukh Khan directed by the industry’s reigning director Farah Khan. Also, if you have half of Bollywood endorsing the film in one song, what could possibly go wrong, right?
Deepika’s meteoric rise in Bollywood has been punctuated with many other forays – notably with the founding of The Live Love Laugh Foundation, Deepika’s initiative to address mental health. This came after her own experience with depression and anxiety that the actor has been very vocal about, in an admirably vulnerable display of how stars too are human.
Along the way, she also turned investor, courted controversy with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, and also had a fairy-tale wedding with co-star Ranveer Singh.
As Deepika Padukone celebrates her 34th birthday today, we take a look at what endears this multi-faceted star to millions of her fans.
Not just a pretty face
While good looks are a given for stardom and celebrity status, especially in Bollywood, Deepika Padukone has, over the years, given a range of stunning performances that has established her as a credible actor and a bankable addition to any project. Whether as fiery lover and heartthrob Mastani in Bajirao Mastani, the sometimes exasperated-other times patient daughter in Piku, doing her own stunts in Chandni Chowk to China, Deepika has delved into every role with gusto, and most of the times played them to perfection. She is also clearly a director’s actor who has proved if the role for her has been written well, she will surely do justice to it.
Not afraid to be human
Deepika has proved herself, time and again, that though she may be one of the reigning queens of Bollywood, her status does not stop her from talking of her frailties or what she has gone through.
She has been quite vocal about her struggle with anxiety and depression, often crying at events or in television shows while explaining what she has gone through. Surely inspiring for all those who struggle with mental health and bogged down by people who are judgemental about what they undergo on a daily basis.
When action spoke louder than words
Deepika didn’t just speak up about mental health; she took it to a new direction by setting up a foundation dedicated to it. The Live Love Laugh Foundation, based in Bengaluru, addresses mental health issues by raising awareness on all levels. The main aim of TLLLF is to reduce social stigma and create awareness around mental health. TLLLF has spread awareness on mental health via its English/Hindi website, through extensive engagement on social media, outreach to various print, TV, radio and digital media outlets, and by undertaking several on-ground activities, such as mental health awareness programmes for school students and teachers.
A keen business sense
Deepika is also a startup investor who made an undisclosed investment in Drums Food International, the parent company of flavoured Greek yoghurt brand Epigamia. The investment is a part of Epigamia’s recent Rs 182 crore Series C funding round, and has been made through KA Enterprises LLP, a corporate entity wholly owned by Deepika Padukone.
(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)