Revealed! Why Deepika Padukone Always Calls Her Mum Back Now!

Here is how Deepika Padukone’s dream day would unfold: “Hopefully, I’d have slept by 10.30pm the night before,” she says, “as opposed to late, like 11.30 or midnight.” I have her on the phone at 10.30pm; she’s in her car on her way home after a full day of shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period drama, Padmavati. “I’d wake up at 8am, eat a good South Indian breakfast, throw in a workout. Then,” she says slowly, as if only daring to dream, “I’d clean my house. The whole house. Open all the cabinets, count the crockery. Make sure everything is in order. Then I’d do my accounts.” In case you were wondering about the fabulous life of India’s richest and, arguably, most famous actress. (The 30-year-old became the first Indian to make Forbes’ list of the World’s Highest Paid Actresses, this year, coming in at number 10.)

- Cheryl-Ann Couto

Success is a funny thing, isn’t it? Especially when it’s of the scale of your average movie star’s. You can have everything—kingdoms in real estate, the envy and obsession of millions, billboards of your incredibly symmetrical face staring back at you at every major junction on your way to work. You can have it all, except the things you really want, which is to binge-watch Suits and waft gently into carb-filled slumber without taking off your make-up first. Tonight, after nearly 12 straight hours of dancing for a song sequence, she will likely head to the gym in her building “to walk on the treadmill and stretch my body out a little”. Instead of, you know, crumpling in a heap and weeping with fatigue, like a normal. Rinse and repeat this day for a couple of months, at least.

Instead, Padukone sounds energetic, upbeat. “I was blasting music before you called,” she says. “I’ve had a really good day. The song is going so well.” Although, really, I think her sense of propriety won’t let her whine even a little. “No, I just find it very boring when people talk about their struggle and how hard everything is. Everybody is working hard.” She, however, does admit that you need unfathomable amounts of passion if you are to make a go of this work—and this life. “I’m very passionate. I love what I do. The exciting part of my journey has been not just the opportunities I got, but what I made of them.”

Next year, it’ll be exactly a decade since she began her career in Hindi films—with Farah Khan’s