In 2018, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, starring Deepika Padukone as Queen Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and the villain of the piece Ranveer Singh as Allaudin Khilj took the film world by storm.
The film, based on 16th-century Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s epic poem Padmavat, is set in 1303 AD and is the story of honor, valor, and obsession. Sanjay Leela Bhansali said in an interview at the time, “Padmaavat is a dream come true for me. I have always been fascinated by the stories of honor, valor, and vigor of our great Rajput warriors that have been captured so beautifully in our literature, and this movie is my homage to those glorious stories.”
The epic drama, as only Bhansali can create, garnered rave reviews and hit high marks at the box office the world over. Also, to be noted, Ranveer, Shahid, and Deepika’s performances in Padmaavat are considered one of the best in their brilliant repertoires.
Let’s set the stage to recall back to that time and the world of Padmaavat.
To celebrate the timeless tale of love, honour and courage, Padmavaat is getting ready to hit the big screen again on February 6th.
In 2018, Stacey was honored to talk with Deepika Padukone about the film right after its release. In the incredible conversation, Deepika’s answers were so open and rich with insights and emotion that we had to share some of the highlights.
Describing Queen Padmavati, the actress said, “Legend has it that she was the most beautiful woman in the world, and that is what the invaders kept their eyes on and wanted to conquer it. But for me, her beauty was beyond her physical beauty. The more I read up, I realized her beauty lies in her inner strength, in her power, in her conviction, in her intelligence, in her vulnerability, in all of these factors that I feel like all of us women have. We have all been conditioned to think of beauty a certain way over years and generations. I think beauty is so much more than just what meets the eye. It is all the attributes, the qualities, what she stands for; I think all of that makes a woman beautiful.”
Asked how she prepared to play this character with all those aspects and having to show this through her eyes, her lines, her actions, and her everything, she explained, “Well, if any woman read this script, she would relate to it because I think every woman has these attributes and these qualities. Some may be more pronounced than the other, some might be aware of what they believe in and stand for, some may not be, but every woman has these qualities. At this human level I find it’s very, very relatable. So, preparation for me was really more of a mental and emotional preparation because of the journey this film takes you on and because of the amount of energy this film was going to take from us and took from us. Then, of course, the physical preparation like the ‘Ghoomar’ song and the dance and that kind of stuff, but largely it was more just mental preparation.”
Deepika also talked about entering the world of a Bhansali film — ‘Mr. Bhansali is, of course, known for his epic sets and costumes, and just the gorgeousness of the colours he paints his film with; what is it like to walk onto a set of his and be taken back to the time of the film?’ “You know, the experience is the fact that we are transported back. In fact, the lines – they are very blurred after a point because you surrender to that world so early on that actually the current world seems like a hindrance. There are moments when it is just easier being on set all the time. There were times when I would ask him if I could just stay in my vanity van that is just parked outside the floor because it was just easier to remain in that world without having to break and come back to reality and then start the process all over again. Then there were moments when I would actually make use of that moment, actually step away from there and come home and take a break from that world and then go back refreshed again in the morning. It really is a tough process to be able to do and to carry that for so many months. It is exhausting!”
As for what the director brings out in her as an actress, she had this to say, “So much! So, so much! I feel like he taps into places that you are not aware of yourself. He has enriched me so much as an actor creatively and as a human being. In the years we have worked together he has added so much value to me and has enriched me in so many ways.”
You can read the full interview here.
You can experience the brilliance of her performance once again when Padmaavat releases in cinemas on February 6th. We know we will be there!
