*Deepika🔈: Forget Biopics, Make Films on the Common Man💁♀*
Deepika Padukone loves her rasam saadham. In Chennai for the launch of Tissot’s first flagship boutique in the city, the actor reminisced about her favourite foods and her memories of Chennai back in her badminton days.
“When I was a badminton player, a lot of tournaments would happen here. I remember taking the train from Bengaluru with my team, staying in dormitories at the stadiums... so many happy memories,” she says in a tête a tête.
She has a lot to say — mostly positive — about women-centric cinema in Bollywood. “I wouldn’t say there is a dearth. I definitely feel like it’s getting a little repetitive, though,” she muses. “I feel like there are too many biopics being made. In the last few months, I can’t count the number of biopics that we’ve been offered. And they’re all great; they’re very strong and powerful. But when it comes to a film, after a point, how much are you going to tell me about those struggles? Even a common man on the street has had a similar journey, if you ask me.”
Having said that, she is optimistic about the situation as it stands today. It would be amiss to say that things are ‘changing’, in terms of women-centric content. “I think it has changed already. I don’t think women in film today are in a place where they have to wait — or look — for a strong female part. It’s all there. Now, it really boils down to the specific content: whether a particular film excites a particular actor or not.”
Though it’s been three years since its release, Piku remains Deepika’s benchmark for a woman-centric film. “Piku is my most favourite film of all time. Not because I’m in it, but as a film. Just the way the story and subject was handled, the way it came together, all of it. I’m yet to see a film that did that to me.
