On the work front, Deepika is paring up with Saif Ali Khan twice over, after previously sharing screen space with him in his first home production, Love Aaj Kal. She will be working with Saif in his third home production, a film being written by Imtiaz Ali that will be directed by Homi Adajania, and also in Prakash Jha's Aarakashan, in which she is playing Amitabh Bachchan's daughter. The role in the latter was earlier turned down by Katrina Kaif as there wasn't much for the female actor to do in a film dominated by three significant male characters played by Amitabh, Saif and Manoj Bajpai.
"Well, I am the one significant female character amongst the three males. I don't care what other people are doing or not doing. I've always wanted to work with Amitji, but I didn't think I'd get an opportunity this early in my career. The film came to me and I found it interesting. It touches on a serious issue. Our education system and the reservation policy is something that people should be made aware of."
There was a time when actress Deepika Padukone would instantly clam up at the mere mention of actor and former flame Ranbir Kapoor. But there's been a change. Padukone on Thursday night, at the venue of the Zee Cine Awards in Singapore, appeared calm, confident and raring to go. And the demeanour didn't change even at the mention of her ex beau.
"Me, Imran, Ranbir, Sonam…we have all started in Bollywood at about the same time. And even though we are contemporaries, we are friends first.Besides, Ranbir and I belong to the same group of friends. And you cannot shun your group of friends just because of your relationship status, isn't it?" she asks.
Padukone says that both she and Kapoor understand and hold no grudges against each other anymore.
But what about the nasty comments that she and Sonam made on the actor on a chat show? "Ranbir is not hurt anymore. We have reached a stage where we have forgiven each other and hold no grudges. After a point, we (she and Ranbir) had a good laugh over it. Yes, we had our differences at one point of time and now that's not there. We are friends now and friends are allowed to take liberties with each other," she says.
She says that she is also not averse to doing a film with Kapoor as she feels that a career decision should always take precedence over matters of the heart. "Yes, we can work again. I see no problems about it. At the end of the day, there are a handful of actors in Bollywood and nobody can say that he or she won't work with the other person. I will never say something like that," she says.
Talking about her career, with a hit like Housefull and a huge flop like Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se, Padukone says that each has been a learning experience for her. "I know that critics have labelled it (Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se) as a huge flop but trust me, the experience that I had while shooting for the film is also incomparable. I felt sad that the movie didn't do well as we expected but I got to know so much about our country's history. The experience of working with Ashutosh (Gowariker) has been worth it," she ends.