Bollywood’s Deepika Padukone on India’s global moment, being a ‘non-nepo’ baby

Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone graced the cover of Vogue India, speaking about India’s moment on the global stage, her own global partnerships and starting her acting career as a “non-nepo” baby, in an interview on Monday.

The face of Vogue India’s November/December issue, Padukone is one of India’s most recognizable stars boasting over 77 million followers on Instagram.

Earlier this month, she inaugurated the flagship Cartier store at the new Jio World Plaza in Mumbai, as she’s brand ambassador for the storied fine French jeweller – only one of her many global partnerships.

In 2022, she became the first Indian to become a House Ambassador for storied French luxury brand, Louis Vuitton.

“When Ethan James Green was shooting me for the Louis Vuitton campaign last year, I saw the images with the logo on the monitor and I thought to myself, ‘Yeah, whatever, they are just going to put it on their social media and use me like an influencer’ and I moved on from that,” she was quoted as saying.

“A few months later, I was in Cannes as part of the film festival jury when I looked out the car window on my way to the red carpet and saw this huge storefront with my face on it. That’s when it finally hit me—this is happening.”

Last year, she was also tapped to unveil the FIFA World Cup trophy in Qatar and appeared on the cover of TIME magazine.

This year, she was a presenter at the 95th Academy Awards.

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Speaking about India’s place on the world stage, she said, “India has always been here, it’s just taken the world this much time to sit up and notice our power,” she was quoted as saying by Vogue India.

“We’ve stuck to being authentic to who we are,” she further added.

“This is not a bubble. It is not something that has been created overnight. What makes this time where India is finally being taken seriously as a player on the world map more meaningful is that it isn’t transient.”

Louis Vuitton, Gucci to open at Mukesh Ambani’s Jio World Plaza in Mumbai

Padukone made her debut in Bollywood at the age of 21, with ‘Om Shanti Om’ (2007) across superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

She spoke about breaking into the industry as an “outsider” addressing the challenges she faced along the way.

“It’s an uphill task for any individual trying to make a mark in a field or profession that their parents don’t come from,” she was quoted as saying.

“The fact that we’ve started to articulate things like nepotism is a new trend,” she added. “It existed then, it exists now and it will continue to exist. That was my reality.”

Deepika Padukone attends the Louis Vuitton show at Musee d’Orsay in Paris

Speaking about her lonely start and how she learnt to deal with things on her own, Padukone shared, “Back then, I had so many things to deal with, not just professionally but also personally.”

“I was a teenager moving to a new city with no family or friends in a new industry. I had to figure out my meals and transport, and lug my own bags around.”

“I never thought of it as a burden back then. I’d finish late at night, exhausted, then carry my suitcase across town in a cab and sometimes fall asleep on the drive back home. My mother would be so worried about whether I would get home safe.”

“Today when I look back at that journey, I think, ‘Not bad, girl! You did this and you did it on your own’,” she added.

Padukone is married to fellow actor Ranveer Singh. She will next be seen in director Rohit Shetty’s ‘Singham Again,’ where she plays a police officer.

It is India’s time on the global stage; Pakistan is nowhere near it