Deepika Padukone says ‘she was in a daze’ when she first met Shah Rukh Khan: ‘I was sitting on the sofa’s edge’

Actor-producer Deepika Padukone, who was last seen in Shakun Batra’s Gehraiyaan, was recently featured on the cover of an international magazine. Deepika, in an interview with the magazine, recounted her early days as an actor and how her experience in the film business was presented to her ‘on a platter’.
Deepika made her debut in Hindi movies with the 2007 film Om Shanti Om where she played a yesteryear superstar Shantipriya and starred alongside Shah Rukh Khan. Describing him ‘India’s biggest superstar’, Deepika said she was ‘almost in a daze’ when she first met him. “I remember just sitting at the edge of the sofa, being so nervous, and almost in a daze. I couldn’t even process what was happening,” she told Allure.

Deepika revealed that the film’s director Farah Khan never even auditioned her for the role. “They never auditioned me. Even today, I look at (the director, Farah Khan) and I’m like, ‘What were you guys thinking?’”

Deepika has come a long way since then and is currently one of the leading superstars of the Hindi film industry. She is currently shooting for a song in Spain with Shah Rukh Khan for their next film Pathaan, where they share the screen with John Abraham. The Siddharth Anand directorial is set to hit the screens on January 25, 2023.
Apart from Pathaan, Deepika is working on Project K with Prabhas, Fighter with Hrithik Roshan. the Hindi adaptation of The Intern with Amitabh Bachchan and is also developing a film based on the life of her father, international badminton player Prakash Padukone.