If she hadn’t become one of the most sought-after models in the country today, Deepika Padukone might well have been smashing records in another arena: the badminton court. The 19-year-old daughter of India’s best-known badminton player Prakash Padukone was a state-level player and could have gone further had the world of glamour not claimed her.

Beautiful she is, with a fresh prettiness, a dimpled smile, and a lithe body, but in some ways, she is most unmodel-like. One just can’t associate the hyperactive, chain-smoking, compulsively partying prototype of her breed with Deepika. Her feet, she assures listeners, are firmly on the ground and she feels no danger of being swept away irrevocably into the stormy, high-strung world of fashion. For a 19-year-old, Deepika exudes grace, while retaining a refreshing innocence that is one of her strongest assets.

“It must be my upbringing,” says Deepika, “but I’ve never felt the urge to conform with the norms of the fashion industry. Neither have I ever been intimidated by it. It has been good to me, so far.” She is often asked how she, brought up in a strict south Indian household and imbibed with strong middle class values, holds her own in the big, bad world of fashion. “It’s been big, but never bad. I have always been guided well, by my parents, my manager and all the people I’ve worked with,” she says. Maybe it’s the aura of calm innocence that hangs about her that makes people feel protective, but she says she knows how to take care of herself too. “I saw how my dad handled fame and adulation, and never let it go to his head. I am positive it won’t go to mine either.”

She might currently be the Big Thing on the fashion scene, but she is far from being new to it. After all, she started modelling as a child, doing TV and print campaigns for several brands. It helped that one of her close friend’s mother was a model co-ordinator, and she ensured that work kept coming in till she was well into school life, when she stopped modelling to concentrate on her studies.

Then, when she was in her final years at school, people started telling her she must enter the Miss India contests. With this goal in mind, she got her portfolio shot by ace photographer Atul Kasbekar. But she never had to take the Miss India route since she was snapped up by Matrix, the modelling agency run by Kasbekar (who was reportedly floored by her looks at first glance), and launched into modelling in style as the Liril girl, as prestigious a campaign as any newcomer could wish for. From here, it was on to several more popular TV campaigns such as Close Up, Maruti Alto and Limca.

Just as people had started to say that she had a good face for TV and print, but would not be really suitable for the ramp, she proved them wrong by becoming the most sought-after model at the Lakm? India Fashion Week, 2005. She glided down the ramp for some of the biggest names in the fashion industry, and became one of the very few Indian models who have been a success in all three modelling mediums: print, TV and ramp.

“I’m always asked which medium I enjoy the most, but it’s very difficult to say that actually,” says Deepika. “While I enjoy the energy, the verve and the sense of urgency of ramp modelling, TV shoots can be quite challenging, too, since they require a certain amount of acting skills.”

What about the rumours of her being approached by Farah Khan for her next directorial venture, Happy New Year? If the grapevine is to be believed, no less than Shah Rukh Khan is said to have recommended her to Farah. Deepika smiles mysteriously, but refuses to divulge any details about her proposed Bollywood career. “Let me just say that I have received a number of offers, some of them most flattering, but nothing has been finalised yet, so I’m not free to talk about it,” she says apologetically.

But it is true that she has enrolled in an acting school in Mumbai, she acknowledges. “Bollywood is definitely there in my plans for the future, but I’m not sure I want to plunge into it right away. After all, my modelling career is far from over and I feel there’s a lot more I can do. I have seen a lot of models who shift to Bollywood and their careers as models are never the same after that. I don’t want to do that,” she says.

At an age when most girls are just starting college and have nothing more vital than the all-important question of what-to-wear to decide, it must be tough taking all these decisions and careering around the country completing hectic modelling assignments. “I did enjoy college, since my last two years of school were done at Sophia’s college in Bangalore, so I can’t say I’ve missed out on college life,” says Deepika. And in the midst of all the jet-setting between cities, whenever she finds time, she comes home to Bangalore. “I love this city,” she says in her quiet, self-composed way. “The weather’s lovely, the people are really nice and the pace of the city is so slow and laidback.” But although Mumbai managed to scare her a bit initially, having lived there for four months, she’s grown to love that city as well.

Seeing her sitting cosily in the drawing room of her parents’ house in a posh Bangalore locality, it’s easy to see how she can switch from high-octane shoots for fashion spreads to lounging around the house in shorts and T-shirts. “I’m very much the ‘regular girl’,” she says, “I love hanging out with my friends, watching films, and I’m a complete shopaholic. I’m crazy about clothes and if I see something I like, I have to have it. I recently went berserk at the Mango sale,” she confesses.

After all, for all the poise and self-assurance, she is just 19 years old.

Photograph by Sanjoy Chattopadhyay