Deepika Padukone Says She Was Worried About Being Written Off Because Of Her South Indian Accent

It was 2007 when doe-eyed Deepika Padukone made her Bollywood debut opposite Shah Rukh Khan with Om Shanti Om and left the world in awe of her gorgeous features. Cut to present, in the last one decade, Deepika not only carved a niche for herself in the film industry, but also broke many stereotypes of Bollywood. From addressing mental health to slamming pay disparity, Deepika did everything that makes her more than a female superstar. She is an icon in every way!

In her recent tete-a-tete with Vogue magazine, when Deepika was asked what makes her successes all the more special, she said that she took all the challenges head on.

"I do see the obvious disparity between men and women in almost any aspect of life, but never in my journey have I felt the need to compare. And I think it's to do with the fact that my sister and I weren't brought up like that. We weren't constantly reminded of the fact that we were girls, and so we had to go into the world thinking differently and fighting for what we deserved," said Deepika.

She further said, "But I did have to tackle other challenges. Coming from a sports background meant I did not have a natural inroad into Bollywood. My South Indian accent was also frowned upon and I initially worried about being written off because of it."

Cut to present, Deepika is inundated with interesting projects. She has Shah Rukh Khan and John Abraham-starrer Pathaan, Hrithik Roshan-starrer Fighter, Prabhas and Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Project K, Amitabh Bachchan-starrer tentatively titled The Intern, etc.

She was last seen in Shakun Batra's Gehraiyaan, which also featured Ananya Panday, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Dhariya Karwa in the lead roles. While the film received mixed reactions from audience, Deepika was lauded immensely for her acting chops.