Bollywood Hollywood: Deepika Padukone

Wednesday, 2 January 2008

Deepika Padukone -- Levis Strauss Shoot

Deepika Padukone

Name - Deepika Padukone

Birth name - Deepika Padukone

Birthdate - 1986

Birth location - Mangalore, India

Height - 5' 6 "

Profession - Actress, Model

Debut Film - Aishwarya (Kannada)

Father - Prakash Padukone (Famous Badminton player) Mother : Ujjala Padukone

Relationship - Nihar Pandya (Indian model and socialite)

Deepika Padukone Biography

Deepika Padukone (born January 5, 1986) is an Indian model turned actress.

Born to Ujjala & Prakash Padukone on January 5, 1986 in Copenhagen, Denmark, her family moved to Bangalore when she was only eleven months old. Her mother is a travel agent while her father, a badminton player, played at the international level for India and won the All England Championship in 1980. She also has a younger sister named Anisha. Padukone has received formal training in Bharatnatyam dancing.

Padukone attended Sophia's High School in Bangalore and later did her undergraduate studies from Mount Carmel College. While in high school, she played badminton at the state level like her father and was a member of her father's badminton club. Unlike her father, she wasn't keen on pursuing a career as a badminton player and left it because of her board exams.

While pursuing her studies in college, she decided to pursue a career in modelling due to her tall slender figure. Over the years, she modelled for Liril, Dabur Lal powder, Close-Up toothpaste and Limca, receiving many prestigious modelling offers, including brand ambassadorship of the Jewels of India, an annual jewellery exhibition. She hit the international scene when Maybelline made her their new international covergirl face.

At the fifth annual Kingfisher Fashion Awards, she was awarded the title of Model of the Year and Playboy Magazine Cover Winner. Shortly afterwards, she was chosen as one of the models for the Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar for 2006 and won two trophies at the Idea Zee F Awards later that year - Female Model of the Year - (Commercial Assignments) and Fresh Face of the Year. Padukone was also chosen as the brand ambassador of Kingfisher Airlines and most recently Levi Strauss.

After pursuing a career in modeling, Padukone branched out a career into acting. She started by starring in the music video for Naam Hai Tera, a song from the pop album Aap Ka Suroor, an independent album by Himesh Reshammiya.

In 2006, Padukone made her cinematic debut in the Kannada film, Aishwarya. She later made a successful Bollywood debut in 2007 with Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om opposite Shahrukh Khan. Her performance of a 1970s superstar Shantipriya, and later as Sandy won her great reviews.

Padukone is currently working on Priyadarshan's next film Pirate and Siddharth Anand's Next. She has also been signed to play the female lead in Nikhil Advani's Chandni Chowk To China opposite Akshay Kumar.