{"id":898939,"date":"2026-09-20T13:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T13:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898939\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T13:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T13:22:21","slug":"filmmaker-who-introduced-deepika-padukone-says-she-was-always-destined-to-go-global-i-saw-focus-hunger-discipline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898939\/","title":{"rendered":"Filmmaker who introduced Deepika Padukone says she was always destined to go global: \u2018I saw focus, hunger, discipline\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The doe-eyed Shantipriya and Sandy in Farah Khan\u2019s 2007 hit Om Shanti Om might have made Deepika Padukone<\/a> a household name, but that wasn\u2019t her debut. The actor, whose mother tongue is Konkani, debuted in the film industry with a comparatively lesser-known Kannada film. Starring one of Sandalwood\u2019s superstars, Upendra, it was a commercial success at the box office.<\/p>\n

\"DeepikaDeepika Padukone’s first film was a Kannada film that starred Upendra in the lead role.Filmmaker who introduced Deepika Padukone<\/p>\n

Indrajit Lankesh was the director who introduced Deepika to the film industry with his 2006 hit Aishwarya, an official remake of Nagarjuna\u2019s Telugu hit Manmadhudu (2002), with portions inspired by Suriya\u2019s Tamil hit Ghajini (2005).<\/p>\n

Indrajit played badminton with Deepika before he became a director and she became an actor. The actor\u2019s father is badminton pro Prakash Padukone, and she played the sport as a teenager in championships. The director recently told TOI, \u201cI was actually playing badminton with Deepika back when she was playing for the state. Later, I became a director, and she became an actor. When I was already four films old as a director, I wanted to sign her. She was a model at that time, and the day I met her to narrate Aishwarya, I knew she was a star in the making,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

Indrajit says he was so impressed by her focus and professionalism even before she faced the camera that he knew she was destined to go global. \u201cI saw the focus, hunger, ambition and discipline in her. I actually told her while shooting that I didn’t think she would be limited to Kannada or Bollywood; I felt she had what it takes to become a global star,\u201d he said. The director also spoke about the actor\u2019s 8-hour working day mandate, stating that he \u2018entirely agrees\u2019 with her. Indrajit also claimed that when actors shoot beyond eight hours, it shows on camera.<\/p>\n

Motherhood and career<\/p>\n

After Om Shanti Om, Deepika has starred in films such as Bachna Ae Haseeno, Love Aaj Kal, Housefull and Cocktail. In 2017, she ventured into Hollywood<\/a>, starring in xXx: Return of Xander Cage alongside Vin Diesel. Her most recent films were Siddharth Anand\u2019s Fighter, Rohit Shetty\u2019s Singham Again, and Nag Ashwin\u2019s Kalki 2898 AD in Telugu in 2024.<\/p>\n

Deepika and Ranveer had been dating since 2012 after they fell in love while shooting Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela. They married in 2018 at Lake Como, Italy. In September 2024, their first child, daughter Dua Padukone Singh, was born. On September 19 this year, the couple announced <\/a>the birth of their second child, another daughter.<\/p>\n

Deepika now has Siddharth\u2019s King with Shah Rukh Khan lined up, as well as Atlee\u2019s Telugu film Raaka <\/a>with Allu Arjun. Inradjit now has a Hindi film titled Jai Hind Jai Sindh: A Love Story lined up. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The doe-eyed Shantipriya and Sandy in Farah Khan\u2019s 2007 hit Om Shanti Om might have made Deepika Padukone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,1302,467481,467482,134,344,14112],"class_list":["post-898939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-deepika-padukone","tag-deepika-padukone-first-film","tag-deepika-padukone-second-baby","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-ranveer-singh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}