Deepika Padukone doesn’t think she needs to change her accent to be accepted in the West: ‘We’re almost apologetic about where we come from’

Deepika Padukone hasn't done a Hollywood film since 2017's xXx: Return of Xander Cage, but this doesn't mean that she doesn't have global ambitions anymore.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | September 16, 2023 07:32 PM IST

3 min read

Actor Deepika Padukone made her Hollywood debut with the Vin Diesel starrer XXX: Return of Xander Cage. (Photo: Vin Diesel/Instagram)

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Actor Deepika Padukone, who was most recently seen in an extended cameo in the blockbuster film Jawan, said in an interview that she has global ambitions, but they aren’t limited to just acting. Deepika also said that in an attempt to break into the Western market, she wouldn’t want to abandon her own culture and identity.

Speaking to The Week, Deepika admitted that her journey has been slower than expected, but she wants to work on her own terms. Deepika made her Hollywood debut with xXx: Return of Xander Cage, in which she starred opposite Vin Diesel. The movie received mixed reviews, but was a commercial success. Attempts to get a sequel off the ground haven’t taken off.

Also read | Jawan box office collection day 9: Shah Rukh Khan-Atlee film is already ahead of Pathaan, crosses Rs 700 crore mark in record time

Deepika said, “I have global ambitions, but much of it is being beyond a movie star. There is a lot I want to do globally as an individual. I find it fascinating and strange at the same time to think that we were almost apologetic about who we are and where we came from. We have always overcompensated because of this. I don’t feel I need to move to another country or speak the way they speak in order to be accepted. Has the journey taken longer? Yes. But I sleep better knowing I am in my culture and I did it on my own terms.”

In 2021, Deepika announced her second Hollywood venture, a ‘cross-cultural romantic comedy’ that she’d also produce. No updates have emerged about the project since then. Deepika was also supposed to star in a remake of the hit Hollywood film The Intern, which would’ve initially starred Rishi Kapoor alongside her. But after his passing in 2020, Amitabh Bachchan was roped in. It was rumoured last year that Deepika had dropped out of the film.

In Jawan, Deepika plays the mother of Shah Rukh Khan’s Vikram Rathore in an extended flashback sequence. At the film’s success meet on Friday, she said that she did the film for free, out of her love for Shah Rukh. Deepika and Shah Rukh worked together in her first film, Om Shanti Om, and again in Pathaan earlier this year.

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