National-level badminton player, award-winning performer, mental health campaigner and international style icon — Deepika Padukone is exactly where she wants to be. Serena Menon reunites the Bollywood actor with her mentor, renowned film-maker and choreographer Farah Khan, as they reflect on her journey from ingenuous debutante to industry leader.
Farah Khan (FK): No one has taken a sabbatical for this long. It’s very brave of you. During Happy New Year (2014), you were doing triple shifts and five movies in a year. Is this deliberate?
Deepika Padukone (DP): Yeah, because I feel like — and I like the word you used, brave — there always seems to be this pressure on women, especially in film, to do everything now, make hay while the sun shines…
FK: It’s always a 100-metre dash, not a marathon.
DP: And I think, somewhere, I got fed up of people telling me that. I don’t look at my career like that. The perception that it is short-lived, so you have to make the most of it. If you’re looking at a career in the long run, it’s important to replenish emotionally, and that’s why this break is important.
Excerpted from ELLE’s September cover story. To read the full story, subscribe to the print edition here or download the digital edition here.
Check out Deepika Padukone’s stunning shoot in ELLE’s September issue:
[Gallery id=”1575″]
Photographs: Tarun Vishwa
Styling: Malini Banerji
Art direction: Mrudul Pathak Kundu
Hair: Gabriel Georgiou/Anima Creative Management
Make-Up: Anil Chinnappa
Assisted By: Divya Gursahani, Pujarini Ghosh and Ishani Desai (Styling), Roshel Chawla (Art)
