Deepika Padukone loves her rasam saadham . In Chennai for the launch of Tissot’s first flagship boutique in the city, the actor reminisced about her favourite foods and her memories of Chennai back in her badminton days.
“When I was a badminton player, a lot of tournaments would happen here. I remember taking the train from Bengaluru with my team, staying in dormitories at the stadiums... so many happy memories,” she says in a tête a tête with actor and former VJ Keith Sequeira.
Deepika also launched the Tissot PR 100 Lady, the latest in the brand’s range of women’s watches. The conversation on stage veers between holidays, watches and endorsements, and only in a later, private interview does it move to cinema.
She has a lot to say — mostly positive — about women-centric cinema in Bollywood. “I wouldn’t say there is a dearth. I definitely feel like it’s getting a little repetitive, though,” she muses. “I feel like there are too many biopics being made. In the last few months, I can’t count the number of biopics that we’ve been offered. And they’re all great; they’re very strong and powerful. But when it comes to a film, after a point, how much are you going to tell me about those struggles? Even a common man on the street has had a similar journey, if you ask me.”
Having said that, she is optimistic about the situation as it stands today. It would be amiss to say that things are ‘changing’, in terms of women-centric content. “I think it has changed already. I don’t think women in film today are in a place where they have to wait — or look — for a strong female part. It’s all there. Now, it really boils down to the specific content: whether a particular film excites a particular actor or not.”
She’s also happy to note that this shift has “happened very quickly: the conversation from one or two years ago to today.”
Deepika is confident about the longevity of this shift. It’s a confidence rooted in her audience. “This is what the audience was looking for; it’s what they were accepting. It’s also what women, as actors, were looking to do. So writers had no option but to start coming up with and creating that kind of content,” says the actor. The process, she feels, has been a mix of the deliberate and the organic: a conscious effort to write and create women-centric cinema played as much of a role, as external forces like the audience.
“Even globally, whether you like it or not, that is the kind of content that is working currently. And then, of course, there has been a lot of advocacy from women about this. As a conversation coming to the fore, I think, all these things happened at the same time.”
Though it’s been three years since its release, Piku remains Deepika’s benchmark for a woman-centric film. “ Piku is my most favourite film of all time. Not because I’m in it, but as a film. Just the way the story and subject was handled, the way it came together, all of it. I’m yet to see a film that did that to me.”
But working with superstar Rajinikanth in Kochadaiiyaan is another highlight of her career. “What more can I ask for?” she laughs, “Every time someone asks me about Rajini sir, the first thing that comes to my mind is the person. The work, his megasuperstardom, all of that is there for the world to see. But I have been so fortunate to know him the way I do — he treats me and considers me like a part of his family — to see his humility and passion, and to see it so close. Those are things that I really cherish.”
