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Kantha embroidered brocade trophy jacket with fur collar, printed long-line khadi jacket with Benarasi brocade border, printed silk velvet trousers; all Sabyasachi. ‘Tribute 105’ sandals, Saint Laurent. ‘Triloubi’ large chain bag, Christian Louboutin. Rose-cut ruby ring, Gem Palace. Art Deco diamond opal stone ring, vintage flower ring, vintage pearl flower ring, vintage pukhraj ring, vintage diamond and sapphire ring set in gold; all Kishandas & Co. for Sabyasachi
Image: Tarun Vishwa
Distressed chiffon blouse with threadwork detail, Benarasi brocade lehenga with antique zardozi border, cotton Benarasi sari with tiger pallu, printed organza veil with antique Benarasi brocade border, ostrich feather choker; all Sabyasachi. ‘Gauhar Jaan’ choker, Kishandas & Co. for Sabyasachi. On left hand: Rose-cut ruby ring, rose-cut diamond ring, both Gem Palace
Image: Tarun Vishwa
Silk Benarasi brocade kurta with side cowls, silk Benarasi brocade churidar; both Sabyasachi. ‘Dawn’ cashmere rose nappa shoes, Malone Souliers. ‘Dragon’ black enamel and small-cut diamond bangle, rose-cut and small-cut diamonds set in 14K gold bangle, ‘Elephant’ rose-cut and small-cut diamonds set in 14K gold bangle, rose-cut diamonds and small-cut rubies set in 14K gold bangle, black enamel and diamond bangle, rose-cut diamonds and small-cut emeralds set in 14K gold bangle, rose-cut ruby ring; all Gem Palace. Bone bangles; all Sabyasachi. Vintage flower ring set in gold, vintage pukhraj ring, vintage diamond ring, vintage diamond flower ring; all Kishandas & Co. for Sabyasachi
Image: Tarun Vishwa
Lace fringed bralet, Benarasi brocade peasant blouse, printed silk velvet dhoti pants; all Sabyasachi. Rubies and rock crystals set in 22K gold necklace, Gem Palace. On right hand: Rose-cut ruby ring, Gem Palace. Vintage flower ring set in gold, vintage pukhraj ring, vintage emerald and pearl ring; all Kishandas & Co. for Sabyasachi. On left hand: Rose-cut diamond ring, Gem Palace. Vintage gold and emerald ring, vintage pearl ring, vintage diamond and sapphire ring set in gold, vintage diamond flower ring; all Kishandas & Co. for Sabyasachi
Image: Tarun Vishwa
Lace fringed bralet, distressed antique brocade and fur overcoat with zardozi and gem detail, printed silk velvet dhoti pants, studded leather belt, beadwork embroidered wedge shoes; all Sabyasachi. Rose-cut emerald and small-cut diamonds set in 14K gold earrings, Gem Palace. On right hand: Rose-cut ruby ring, Gem Palace. Vintage pukhraj ring, vintage gold flower ring, vintage emerald and pearl ring; all Kishandas & Co. for Sabyasachi. On left hand: Vintage pearl flower ring, vintage diamond flower ring, vintage emerald ring set in gold, vintage diamond and sapphire ring set in gold; all Kishandas & Co. for Sabyasachi. Rose-cut diamond ring, Gem Palace. ‘Dionysus’ leather top-handle bag, Gucci
Image: Tarun Vishwa
Deepika Padukone can eat.
To be fair, she jokes about it all the time. Shoojit Sircar, who directed her in Piku (2015), when asked what he’d change about her, had said that he wishes she had a more “reasonable” appetite. Yet nothing prepares me for the sight of this slender woman, whose abs we gawked at in the Nike video, wolfing down a ravioli bolognese while poring over the dessert menu at the Soho House, Toronto, on an uncharacteristically chilly evening in June.
The place is packed, typical at suppertime on Saturdays. Phones and cameras are frowned upon in this exclusive members-only club, not that anyone seems to recognise her tonight. Perhaps that’s why she likes it here. It’s one of the half dozen places she’s discovered and routinely patronises during her four-month stay in Canada while filming xXx: Return Of Xander Cage. Most evenings, she’ll whip up a dal-rice combo meal and crash out at the condo she’s renting for the duration of her shoot. Or she’ll order in a spicy soup from a Chinese takeaway. But tonight, secure in the knowledge that she isn’t required on set tomorrow, she’s savouring every sip of her Pinot Noir before settling on the pasta.
Weeks later, chatting in her new office, a whole floor she acquired in the same Mumbai high-rise she lives in, Padukone explains how she continues to look like this when she eats like that. “I know my body. I know that if I eat desserts for a whole week straight, I’m going to put on a kilo. When I’m in cold countries, I tend to put on weight easily. At the same time, I know when I’m in Mumbai, when I’m regular with my workouts and eat home food, I can eat everything—rice, roti, everything,” she says. Only last weekend, she polished off virtually all of the biryani that her Om Shanti Om (2007) director, Farah Khan, sent her for Eid. “It was a whole bartan, and I finished almost three-fourths of it,” she says.
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Most people would have to deny themselves the very sight of rice for a whole year after that kind of indulging. Not Padukone. In fact, she can’t remember the last time she had to watch what she was eating. Then it comes to her. “Cocktail. The movie needed that. To play Veronica, I needed to look a certain way, and wear certain clothes. I didn’t want to feel uncomfortable in what I was wearing. That was the last time I tweaked my diet,” she recollects.
Playing wild child Veronica was a turning point in her career. And in 2012, only five years since her Bollywood debut, it signalled the start of a second act, one that saw her gravitate towards characters over roles. Case in point, the hopeless romantic Naina Talwar in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), and Leela, the firebrand incarnation of Juliet in Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013), to name just two. Then, in 2015, in each of her three films that year, you could see something incredible. Padukone’s performances transcended what was on the page. Those big doe eyes were effectively employed to convey hurt, anger, heartbreak and longing in films as wide ranging as Piku, Tamasha and Bajirao Mastani.
EXTREME MEASURES
In February, just weeks after turning 30, she took what may well be her biggest professional gamble. She flew off to make her first Hollywood film. After failing to squeeze Furious 7 into her schedule two years ago, Padukone practically cleared her diary to work with Vin Diesel this time. “It just felt right,” she says of why she picked xXx. “The timing, the role… everything just fell into place.” In the high-adrenalin actioner that Paramount Pictures will release next January, she plays Serena Unger, a character that’s been referred to as a “huntress” of sorts, and one that has had a romantic entanglement with Diesel’s character, an extreme athlete turned government operative.
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She cannot reveal details of the plot or the part yet but she talks about how the film has pushed her in a direction she hadn’t explored previously. “The physical aspect of it; the kind of action I’ve done…” she says. “There was this one major sequence. It was a couple of hours of filming from around 4 o’clock one cold morning, where I’m singlehandedly taking down three or four men. For a week after that I just couldn’t get up. Simple things, like lifting my hand to eat, were a challenge. I was in so much pain.” What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. She insists that she’d like to play a “fullfledged action heroine” and push herself even harder the next time.
In Diesel, Padukone reveals, she’s made a close friend. He’s the first person she’ll call every time she’s in LA. “He and his sister, Samantha, are to me what Shah Rukh and Farah were when I started out here. They’re family.”
Family is a word that’s bandied about a lot on the xXx set. When I visit, they’re filming at a rundown warehouse on the outskirts of Toronto, and although Diesel has wrapped his scenes, there’s a camaraderie between the rest of the team that suggests an affection far greater than what professional relationships usually allow. The Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev, who’s shooting with Padukone today, says about her co-star: “She’s meant to play a real badass in the film, but the minute the camera’s stopped rolling she’s this gentle, caring person, checking if she accidentally grazed you, apologising if she missed her mark. I have so much love for her in my heart.”
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“I was a bundle of nerves on my first day on set because I was so far away from home and everyone was new and everything felt unfamiliar,” Padukone recalls. “But early on I realised that the process is exactly the same. People are different. If you can make the relationships work, it’s all smooth sailing.”
ON THE TOP
It’s evident she anticipates a question about Priyanka Chopra, who is also negotiating the waters in Hollywood. The Quantico star is set to appear in the Baywatch movie opposite another heavyweight action star, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. There have been murmurs that the friendship between DP and PC, who swore undying loyalty only a year ago while filming Bajirao Mastani, has subsequently soured. On that, Padukone will say nothing. On their relationship and the parallels being drawn, she is characteristically stoic. “We have had very different beginnings. I still remember I was in school when she won Miss World! I’ve known her for many years and nothing has changed.” Rejecting the notion that the two actors are in competition over similar career trajectories, Padukone insists that “everyone will have a different path and a different journey.” “What she wants from her career will be very different from what I want and that needs to be understood and respected,” she says.
Is it lonely at the top? “Well, I wouldn’t know. My focus has always been on the journey… on doing good and challenging work and enjoying the process,” she says.
Padukone would rather focus on the positives. In the weeks ahead, she’ll reunite with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and her boyfriend Ranveer Singh for their third film together, an ambitious costume drama on the life and tragic death of Rani Padmavati. She’s chuffed that the conversation around mental health and depression has only gotten louder since she set up the Live Love Laugh Foundation less than a year ago. Vanity Fair recently featured her in their prestigious portfolio, Hollywood’s Next Generation. And Forbes has her down as the 10th richest actress in the world (the only Indian on a list comprising Jennifer Lawrence and Julia Roberts), noting that “she earns less than her Hollywood counterparts for roles but compensates with over a dozen lucrative endorsements.” “I’ve never been driven by money. It has never been my priority or ambition. But it makes me happy to know that when I focus on the things that I love doing and I’m so passionate about, it can result in something like this,” she says of the Forbes ranking. For Padukone, success is measured by the journey and not the destination, she insists. “As long as I can sit here and enjoy the experiences I’m having, the rest is gravy.”
Some pasta with that can’t hurt.
Catch her behind the scenes of the cover shoot here:
Photographed by Tarun Vishwa; Styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania; Creative direction by Sabyasachi Mukherjee
Concept: Sabyasachi Mukherjee. Hair: Daniel Bauer/Artist Factory. Make-up: Anil Chinnappa. Production: Temple Road Productions; Divya Jagwani. Art direction and prop styling: Dipankar Dasgupta. Photographer’s assistants: Raju Raman; Nishant Radhakrishnan. Assistant stylist: Priyanka Kapadia. Production assistant: Janine Dubash
Rajeev Masand is the entertainment editor at CNN-News18
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