Show Girl

Bollywood’s glam gang did not land as usual on the front row of fashion weeks in designerwear to backslap designer friends. But Deepika Padukone was there,reminiscing her modelling days in Delhi and turning showstopper twice in a day,to pull the event out of its suddenly de-glamourised shadows. With her fragile looks and hourglass frame,Padukone can be every designer’s dream ramp-scorcher,but tell the 23-year-old that,and she protests immediately. “I am the kind who is never happy with anything she does. I always find faults,and that’s how I motivate myself. I feel good about coming back to the fashion week in Delhi and catching up with old friends. It’s where I started my career,” she says after the Fiama di Wills show with Ranna Gill and Rina Dhaka at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week.

Nikhil Advani’s Chandni Chowk to China might have tanked at the box office,but Padukone has things going for her. Up for release is Imtiaz Ali’s Love Aaj Kal where she is paired with Saif Ali Khan. She plays Meera,a new-age girl,in the film that revolves around the impact of modern-day ethos on relationships. “The thing about Imtiaz is that he knows the pulse of his audience. He is extremely sensitive and clued into the surroundings in which his story is set,” she gushes.

Even though her first few films have seen her in out-and-out commercial roles,Padukone is open to change. “The distinction between genres is blurring because Bollywood too is looking to experimenting and innovating. If a film like Dev D or Gulaal is doing good business,it means there’s an audience for it,and I am not going to throw up my hands and say no,” she says.

She is looking at scripts,searching for that classic wholesome entertainer. “I would love to do something like Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I see no reason why de-glamourised roles should be so glorified. I find the argument that actors who put on make-up and run around trees have an easy job extremely ridiculous. Heroines are no longer accessories in a movie and your mettle is tested on how you interpret a role,” she says. We will wait for debutant

director Vijay Lalwani’s Kartik Calling Kartik,where she is opposite Farhan Akhtar. “It’s an offbeat

film,a psychological thriller,but there are enough light moments in it,” she says.