‘When you have a good film, nobody is interested in anything else’

In a chat with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7's Walk the Talk, actor Deepika Padukone talks about following her heart and why she chose a film where she doesn't even get the guy at the end.

My guest today is Deepika Padukone. It's the first time on Walk the Talk that I have had the privilege of featuring a daughter after having featured her father.

Thank you so much.

I've been a fan of your father since my days in school and college. And now the entire country is a fan of yours.

I always beam when people say she's Prakash Padukone's daughter. That's a nicer feeling.

That's how you became close to sport.

I remember I was in school and it started off with me going to the courts every evening, learning how to play a sport. Obviously, it was badminton. But before I knew it, I had already started training and was playing competitive badminton, till I was about 16 or 17. One day I decided that this is not what I want to do. I realised I was more inclined towards the glamour industry. My parents were and have been very supportive of that decision. A lot of people ask me: 'Didn't your father get upset that you were not playing badminton?' But he is someone who always believed that (you should) follow your heart, and follow your passion. He played badminton when everybody else was becoming doctors and lawyers and engineers.

When there was no money in badminton. Even today there is no money, unless you win an Olympic medal.

Yes. It's sad you need a champion, for people to recognise a sport. But the conditions in the badminton fraternity are slightly better now. I remember my father playing tournaments without shoes. I remember he didn't have proper courts to play in and would practise in a wedding hall. He would use the steel rafters and beams on the ceiling to his advantage. He would make sure that the shuttlecock went exactly through the rafter.

... contd.

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