Deepika Padukone

Deepika Prakash Padukone is an Indian actress who works mainly in Hindi cinema and is widely regarded as one of the country's most bankable female stars.^[1] Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 5 January 1986 and raised in Bangalore, she is the daughter of the former badminton champion Prakash Padukone, and she played the sport at national level herself before choosing modelling and then films.^[1] She debuted in the Kannada film Aishwarya in 2006, then made her Hindi debut opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Om Shanti Om (2007), which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.^[1]

She has since won three Filmfare Awards, including Best Actress for Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013) and Piku (2015), and has been named to TIME's list of the 100 most influential people (2018) and received the Time100 Impact Award (2022) for her mental health advocacy.^[1][2] Her films include some of the biggest Hindi box-office hits of the past decade, among them Chennai Express, Bajirao Mastani, Padmaavat and Pathaan, and she has also starred in the Hollywood film XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017).^[1] Beyond acting she is a producer, an investor and the founder of the skincare brand 82°E.^[1]

2026 has been an eventful year. Padukone and her husband, the actor Ranveer Singh, welcomed their second child, a daughter, on 19 September 2026, and she has two major films ahead: King with Shah Rukh Khan on 24 December 2026, and Raaka with Allu Arjun, expected in 2027.^[4][6][7]

Padukone was born in Copenhagen to Konkani-speaking Indian parents; her father, Prakash Padukone, is a former professional badminton player and her mother, Ujjala, is a travel agent.^[1] Her younger sister, Anisha, is a golfer.^[1] The family moved to Bangalore when she was about a year old, and she grew up there, attending Sophia High School and completing her pre-university education at Mount Carmel College.^[1] She later enrolled for a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology at the Indira Gandhi National Open University but dropped out because of clashes with her modelling schedule.^[1]

Sport shaped her childhood. She has said she was shy and had few friends as a child, and that her days revolved around early-morning training, school and badminton practice, which she pursued at national-level championships and also played baseball at state level.^[1] She began working as a child model at the age of eight, and in tenth grade she told her father she wanted to leave badminton for fashion, a decision he accepted without any fuss, she has said.^[1]

From 2004 she modelled full time under the guidance of the fashion figure Prasad Bidapa, gained notice in a television commercial for Liril soap, and in 2005 made her runway debut at Lakme Fashion Week and won Model of the Year at the Kingfisher Fashion Awards.^[1] Her appearance in the 2006 Kingfisher Calendar and a music video for Himesh Reshammiya's song Naam Hai Tera brought film offers.^[1] At 21 she moved to Mumbai and stayed with an aunt, and after a short course at Anupam Kher's acting academy, director Farah Khan cast her in Om Shanti Om.^[1]

Padukone's first film, the Kannada romantic comedy Aishwarya (2006), was a commercial success, but it was Om Shanti Om (2007), in which she played both a 1970s star and an aspiring actress, that made her a national name; the film was the highest-grossing Hindi release of its year.^[1] Over the next four years she took on a mix of roles, including Chandni Chowk to China (2009), Love Aaj Kal (2009) and the comedy Housefull (2010), but a string of weaker films led critics to say she had lost her early sparkle.^[1]

The turning point came with Cocktail (2012), in which she played a free-spirited party girl, a role she has said changed the course of her career.^[1] The year 2013 followed with four of the top-grossing Hindi films of the year: Race 2, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Chennai Express and Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, the last of which brought her first Best Actress Filmfare Award.^[1] A second came for Piku (2015), in which she played a headstrong daughter opposite Amitabh Bachchan, and she followed it with the historical epics Bajirao Mastani (2015) and Padmaavat (2018), both directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.^[1] Padmaavat faced protests and threats before release but went on to earn about Rs 5.45 billion worldwide.^[1]

After Padmaavat she took a break and founded her own production company, Ka Productions, whose first film was Chhapaak (2020), in which she played an acid attack survivor; it struggled commercially.^[1] Her next production, the cricket drama 83 (2021), in which she played Kapil Dev's wife Romi opposite Ranveer Singh, also underperformed, and she then starred in the Amazon Prime Video drama Gehraiyaan (2022).^[1] She also served on the jury at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.^[1]

2023 marked a major comeback. Pathaan, an action thriller in the YRF Spy Universe opposite Shah Rukh Khan, and her special appearance in Jawan each earned more than Rs 10 billion worldwide, and Pathaan brought her another Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.^[1] In 2024 she appeared in Fighter with Hrithik Roshan, the Telugu science-fiction epic Kalki 2898 AD and the ensemble action film Singham Again, and she is reported to be the only actor with three films in India's Rs 1,000 crore club.^[1][9]

In 2026 her career has been marked by both big projects and some high-profile changes. Reports in 2025 said she was no longer part of Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Spirit and that the makers of Kalki 2898 AD had announced she would not return for its sequel.^[3] She completed key portions of her role in Atlee's fantasy action film Raaka opposite Allu Arjun, which was formerly known as AA22xA6, and in King with Shah Rukh Khan, scheduled for release on 24 December 2026, and skipped the 2026 Met Gala to focus on both films.^[6][7] Padukone was also named in the Hollywood Walk of Fame's Class of 2026, making her the first Indian actress to receive a star, and in April 2026 she became the new voice of Meta AI in India, the US and other countries.^[3]

While filming Bachna Ae Haseeno in 2008, Padukone began dating her co-star Ranbir Kapoor; the relationship ended about a year later, and the two later repaired their friendship while working together on Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.^[1] She began dating Ranveer Singh in 2012 after working together on Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, spoke warmly about him in 2017, and announced their engagement in October 2018.^[1] The couple married in November 2018 in traditional Konkani Hindu and Sikh Anand Karaj ceremonies at Lake Como, Italy.^[1]

Their first child, a daughter named Dua, was born on 8 September 2024, and the couple have kept her away from the media.^[5] In April 2026 Padukone announced their second pregnancy with an Instagram photo of Dua holding a pregnancy test, and on 19 September 2026 the couple welcomed a second daughter.^[4][5] She lives in Mumbai and has said she regularly visits her family in Bangalore, and she is a practising Hindu who often visits temples.^[1]

One of her most important off-screen roles is as a mental health advocate. After speaking openly about her own experience with depression in 2015, she founded The Live Love Laugh Foundation to raise awareness about mental health in India, and the foundation has run campaigns such as More Than Just Sad and #DobaraPoocho, and worked with Facebook on tools to support people at risk of suicide.^[1] She received the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award for the work and the Time100 Impact Award in 2022.^[1]

She has also built a business portfolio. She launched a clothing line with Van Heusen in 2013, started the self-care brand 82°E in 2022, which raised US$7.5 million in seed funding, and invested in startups through her company Ka Enterprises, including Drum Foods International and the electric taxi company BluSmart.^[1] In April 2026 the beauty retailer Nykaa was reported to be in talks to acquire a stake in 82°E.^[3] She became the first Indian brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton in 2020 and a Cartier ambassador in 2022.^[1]

Estimates of her net worth vary by source, from about Rs 500 crore (roughly US$60 million) to Rs 650 crore, depending on how film fees, endorsements, real estate and business stakes are valued; because these are unaudited estimates they should be treated as approximate.^[10]