Nearly six years after her model-to-actress career move, Deepika Padukone says she is finally being praised for her acting in films and not just for her good looks.
Ayan Mukerji's Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, which stars Deepika in the lead with ex-beau Ranbir Kapoor, got her box-office success and critical appreciation this month. Some reviews said she overshadowed her co-star.
It's a far cry from her Bollywood debut with Om Shanti Om in 2007 and subsequent films when critics described her acting as wooden and mocked her accent.
"We call it the Brad Pitt syndrome where for some reason if you are good-looking then people think you cannot act," Padukone told Reuters in an interview.
"I have been slotted in that way where people thought she is good enough to just add glamour to a film," the 27-year-old actress said.
Deepika Padukone, the daughter of famous badminton player Prakash Padukone, was worried about the undue focus on her physical attributes.
Her acting skills were first noticed in the Homi Adajania film Cocktaillast year.
Deepika played Veronica, an impulsive and spunky woman, poles apart from the self-effacing characters she had played earlier.
Initially, Deepika wasn't sure she could pull off the "out of comfort zone" role but was convinced by filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, the screen writer for Cocktail.
"I have seen the wild, crazy, fun side of that girl, which she was initially trying very hard to conceal," Imtiaz Ali told Reuters.
If it weren't for Imtiaz Ali's advice, Deepika Padukone may have opted for the film's other female lead, a role cast in the mould of the traditional Bollywood heroine.
Critics and fans were taken aback by the role reversal but Padukone received positive reviews.
Deepika Padukone, who started modelling in college, acted in a south Indian film in 2006. She made a dream debut in Bollywood a year later, starring opposite Shah Rukh Khan, arguably Bollywood's biggest superstar.
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