When the stars twinkle in the skies above beauty is resplendent. Resplendent beauty on the silver screen is what perhaps adds to Bollywood movies its bewitching twinkle. Over the years the beauty of our leading ladies has mesmerized us whether that be Nutan, Nargis, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi or the current crop of Katrina and Deepika. Movies are often beautiful because of the beauty of the ladies starring in them. While they peddle fantasies, mesmerize your breath away, some of them have true darkness hidden away inside them in various shades, some have overcome them some succumbed to them. Tales of heartbreak, of adultery, of alcoholism, bankruptcy, and depression have haunted some of the best in the industry. It is indeed various shades of dark if not the 50 shades that have haunted them.
In today’s generation, Deepika Padukone is probably one of the success stories of the Bollywood industry. She of the twinkling doe eyes, dimpled cheek resplendent smile and ethereal beauty. She, who is today probably the highest paid female star in Bollywood. She, of the broken heart and a depression survivor. Some time back I saw a poster, a gray shade-induced one of an unmade up Deepika smiling with a caption of Depression Survivor and not ashamed. It takes guts to come out in a vanity industry and accept to your fallings, especially one where you might be equated to being a lunatic.
Over the years Deepika has time and again proven that she has it in herself to define her moments, take the hard decisions and not been shy of living her decisions. She has heralded to the world her association with Ranbir Kapoor with a tattoo of his initials. We have watched her kiss Siddharth Mallya in the gallery of the iconic Eden gardens during an RCB vs KKR IPL match n national television. Deepika has never shied away from her decisions. In her school life Deepika pursued a career in badminton with earnest performing well, and then gave it up with elan, when she realized she was doing it to satisfy her familial feelings, rather than because she was enjoying it. When given a choice to pick a character to portray between an impulsive party girl, who enjoys her drink rugs and sex yet is jealousy-ridden and a submissive girl next door in the movie cocktail, it was Deepika who chose the role of Veronica and justified her choice with consummate ease. Yes, Deepika has made some hard choices and lived them up.
While Bollywood is filled up with stars one more beautiful than the other Deepika has stood out and been able to carve out a niche for herself, not only because of her glamour quotient but her substance quotient also because of which she has innumerable box office grosser like Yeh jawani hai deewani, Chennai Express, Baji Rao Mastani, Piku and the recent Padmavat . It is because of this that she has multiple Filmfare awards as the best actress to her credit and even more nominations. It is probably because of this that some critics have opined that she has stolen the thunder of an international star like Vin Diesel in her only Hollywood venture XXX: Return of Xander Cage. That is why in a glamour industry she has the courage to don the look of a scarred acid attack survivor in her next venture, Chapak. Indeed Deepika has carved out her niche and believes her success to being her calling card. In her own words, “Also today my work is everything for me. I have created it. I am responsible for my success and failure. No one else can take that away from me. That’s what I have focused all my energies and efforts on. It’s my baby.”
But more than anything what differentiates Deepika, is probably her candid acceptance of her fight with depression. To the millions of people looking up to her, the very fact that the mastani deewani girl could accept it in public was an eye-opener. To the millions who are suffering from it silently in their own cocoons of suffering, a great boost that such a public figure who is awed was making a candid acceptance to an illness that they shared, and for which they had been probably branded a weakling or in the worst case a lunatic. The fact that she coped with, that she survived it gave hope and while bringing her down from a pedestal of stardom to humanity, made her humane and relatable. Seeing her breaking down in an interview with Barkha Dutt on national TV made people look up and realize this is not just a star but a girl like you and me. The fact that she acknowledged her mother and her doctors who flanked her in the interview as her support in this battle made people realize that even stars have fallibilities, behind every smile that dazzles us is hidden the grey of doubt or some other fallibility. Few are those who accept voluntarily that too in the spotlight. Deepika did and endeared herself to many
Deepika Padukone, daughter to a celebrity and celebrity in her own right has many avatars, badminton player, fashion model, actress, and now a philanthropist. Deepika Padukone is the heartthrob of billions who gets disappointed when an Alia Bhatt pips her to a Filmfare award, yet has the humility to reach out to her fans promising to work harder for the next one. Deepika Padukone is the star on a pedestal who chose to step down to mingle amidst us with her acceptance of her fallibility. Deepika Padukone is a diva whose beauty bewitches us, but under her beauty has shades of grey that probably are bursting at her seams.
