Deepika Padukone (born 5 January 1986) is an Indian actress and a former model. She appears mostly in Hindi films, as well as Tamil and Kannada language films. Born to badminton player Prakash Padukone, she chose to become an actress and not pursue a career in sports.[sup][1][/sup]
In 2006, Padukone made her acting debut through the Kannada filmAishwarya [sup][2][/sup] The following year, she made her Hindi film debut in Om Shanti Om, for which she earned the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. It also remains her biggest commercial success so far. She subsequently appeared in films such as Love Aaj Kal (2009) and Housefull (2010). While the former earned her a Filmfare nomination in the Best Actress category, the latter emerged as a commercial success.[sup][3][/sup] Soon after, Padukone featured alongside Saif Ali Khan and Diana Penty in the critically and commercially successful Cocktail (2012), which was directed by Homi Adajania.[sup][4][/sup][sup][5][/sup]
In addition to acting, Padukone is also the ambassador of prominent brands such as Tissot, Sony Cybershot,Yamaha[sup][6][/sup]Nescafe and Kingfisher Airlines.[sup][7][/sup]
Early life and backgroundPadukone was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her father, Prakash Padukone, is a former badminton player of international repute, and her mother is a travel agent. Her father was then training in Denmark in the sport and when she was eleven months old, her family moved to Bangalore, Karnataka, India.[sup][8][/sup] Padukone also has a younger sister, Anisha, born on 2 February 1991.[sup][9][/sup]
Padukone attended Sophia High School in Bangalore, and completed her pre-university studies at Mount Carmel College Bangalore.[sup][10][/sup] While in high school she played badminton at the state level.[sup][11][/sup] However, she was not keen on pursuing a career as a badminton player.[sup][12][/sup] During the time of her film debut she was enrolled with the Indira Gandhi National Open University in Bachelors of Arts (Sociology).[sup][13][/sup][sup][14][/sup]