Deepika Padukone born on January 5, 1986, is an Indian model turned actress who appears in Bollywood movies. She was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her family moved to Bangalore, India, when she was eleven months old. Padukone is of Mangalorean origin, and her mother tongue is Konkani. She is a Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin, and her lineage hails from Padukone village in Kundapura Taluk in the Udupi District of the state of Karnataka, India. Deepika Padukone is daughter of former World badminton Champion Prakash Padukone, and her mother, Ujjala Padukone is a travel agent.
she played badminton during her school days and reached to the level of a State player. However, she was not keen on pursuing a career as a badminton player and abandoned it to concentrate on her ICSE exams. While in college, Padukone pursued a career in modeling. Over the years, she has modeled for such Indian brand names as Liril, Dabur Lal powder, Close-Up toothpaste and Limca, and has been "brand ambassador" for the Jewels of India retail jewelery show. The cosmetics company Maybelline made her its international spokesperson.
At the fifth annual Kingfisher Fashion Awards she was awarded the title "Model of the Year". Shortly afterward, she was chosen as one of the models for the Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar for 2006 and won two trophies at the Idea Zee Fashion Awards: "Female Model of the Year - (Commercial Assignments)" and "Fresh Face of the Year". Padukone was also chosen as the brand ambassador of Kingfisher Airlines and later Levi Strauss and Tissot SA.
