Deepika Padukone Profile

Deepika Padukone was born on 5 January 1986 in Copenhagen, Denmark. But the Padukone family soon shifted to their base in Bangalore, Karnataka, where she stayed. She is the daughter of former World badminton Champion Prakash Padukone. She completed her education in Sophia's High School, Bangalore and undergraduate studies in Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. Being the daughter of the best badminton player, she loved playing badminton. And she played at the state level as well as the national level.

One of her friend's mother was a well-known model coordinator. She introduced the tall lissome beauty to the field of showbiz. At the early stages of her modeling

career, Deepika appeared in print and television advertising campaigns for Liril, Close-Up and Limca. She received many prestigious modeling offers. She got brand ambassadorship of Kingfisher Airlines and the Jewels of India, an annual jewellery exhibition. She bagged the title of Model of the Year at the fifth annual Kingfisher Fashion Awards that was meant for Indian models and designers. She was chosen as one of the models for the Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar for 2006. She has also bagged two trophies at the Idea Zee F Awards in 2006 - Female Model of the year (Commercial Assignments) and Fresh Face of the year.

Thus cementing up her modeling career, she turned to acting. At first she starred in the music audio of Himesh Reshammiyas Naam Hai Tera a song from the pop album Aap Ka Suroor. Then she got the offer of acting in Kannada film. She debuted with Kannada superstar Upendra in Aishwarya, directed by Indrajit Lankesh. The film was a big hit at the Box Office. She received reviews for her great presence on the screen. This film became a stepping stone for her career in film industry.

She had never thought that she would become a great heroine. She loved modeling and thought of surviving in modeling. But when she acted in advertisements, she realized that she has an acting bug in her. So she decided to water that inner urge. She entered Bollywood. She debuted with the Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, in Om Shanti Om, directed by Farah Khan, which got released on Nov. The film has already been successful at the Box Office.

According to source, she has also signed on three Hindi movies - Priyadarshan's forthcoming film, Pirate, and Rakesh Omprakash Mehra's Delhi 6.