Deepika Padukone

Through much of her childhood and adolescence, it appeared that Deepika Padukone would follow in the footsteps of her father, badminton champion Prakash Padukone, but as a teenager, she realized she was more interested in entertainment than athletics. She began her career as a model but moved into acting, landing a starring role in the Bollywood film "Om Shanti Om" (2007). Padukone went on to appear in a number of other Hindi movies including the performance of a sexy song for "Dum Maaro Dum" (2011) that led to a legal charge of indecency. Through films such as "Cocktail" (2012), "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani" (2013) and "Chennai Express" (2013), Padukone continued to prove her acting chops, often shining in films that were otherwise panned.

Born the oldest child of badminton champion Prakash Padukone and Ujjala Padukone in Copenhagen, Norway, Padukone originally trained as a badminton champion, competing at the national level in India before realizing she would rather pursue an entertainment career. She landed her first commercial - advertising soap - as well as her first modeling job, both at the age of 20, and that same year won the Kingfisher Fashion Award for Model of the Year. After attending acting classes, she debuted in "Om Shanti Om," an action-comedy-drama about a reincarnated man looking for his lost love, played by Padukone. The film was a critical and commercial hit, the highest-grossing Indian film in 2007, and won Padukone a Best Female Debut Award in the Filmfare Awards as well as leading to a series of more starring roles for the actress. Padukone's success in follow-up roles was mixed; she received praise for some performances and was panned in others while some critics singled her out as the one high point in otherwise mediocre films. She found herself at the center of controversy when she performed a song in "Dum Maaro Dum" that led to a court filing that ordered the film banned or cut for obscenity although the case was later dismissed. Critics praised Padukone's performance in films including "Cocktail" and "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani" even though the films themselves were not entirely successful. She also starred in "Chennai Express," which grossed more money domestically than any other Bollywood film in history.