Deepika: I was very keen on being an actor

Deepika Padukone talks to Mirror readers, twins Preeti and Rati Parwani, about her foray into films, highs and lows and her bond with badminton

In the middle of a whirlwind promotion tour of her much-hyped, Desi Boyz, we catch the leggy actress Deepika Padukone for a quick tete-a-tete with her ardent fans, Pune-based twins Preeti and Rati Parwani. Hard to tell that they are even related, the two came buzzing with excitement, looking forward to meeting their favourite actress. "She's so pretty, we've seen all her films," gushed 21-year-old Preeti. After a substantial wait, Deepika welcomed us into a small meeting room in an entertainment channel's office where she was busy giving interviews.

Dressed in a fitted sequined cocktail dress, high heels and hair and make-up to boot, in the middle of the afternoon, seemed a little disorienting but did justice to her toned figure. Greeting us with a warm smile, she towered above everyone.

The star-struck twins started, "You look beautiful. How crazy has the promotion schedule been like?" With a smile and an exasperated expression said, "It's absolutely manic. Yesterday we started our day in Chandigarh, took a charter plane to Ludhiana, made it to Amritsar by road before finally heading home.

I optimistically called my trainer and told her I'll come in at 9 am. But I barely made it out of bed. Sometimes it's relaxed, but sometimes many things need to be packed in into a month or two."

"Which films did you really enjoy?" Deepika asked. "OSO and Break Ke Baad was our favourite," they said almost in unison. The girls wanted to know how she felt debuting with Shah Rukh. "I was stunned. I first met Farah while she was rehearsing for a song. She said, 'Lets see how you do. The lead actor is SRK.' She had only seen me in a Himesh (Reshamiya) video before then. At the time Shah Rukh was working on Chak de!, so I had a year to prepare.

Once I knew it was him, I didn't want any other role, so I really worked hard. I took Kathak classes, worked out. I remember the first time I met him, Farah took me to his house, and now things have changed, but back then, everything was white. White sofa, curtains... and I in total Yash Chopra style, wore a white chicken suit with a chiffon dupatta, and tried to camouflage myself. I pretended to be really cool, so I started flipping a book, but I was freaking out.

I sat stiff as a board," she said, laughing. Rati asked her how she felt being called the hottest girl on earth. Deepika replied nonchalantly, "It's nice to hear that but I'm not very conscious about it."

"How and why did you switch from being a sportswoman to an actor?" asked Preeti. "I was very keen on being an actor. If I saw Madhuri dance around in Switzerland, I liked to believe I could do it too. I wasn't fanatic about it; I wouldn't practise in front of a mirror. So when the opportunity presented itself, I took it. But I'm very attached to sports.

I grew up going for practice everyday at 5 am, for four hours a day. Now that I feel like I have some influence, I like to support sports as much as possible," she said. As they wrapped up, Rati asked, "Would you head to Hollywood?" Deepika replied, "I would like to, but offers here are so good that they really need to match up."