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The actress was speaking at the opening session of WAVES 2025 in Mumbai, where she was joined by Shah Rukh Khan in a conversation titled The Journey, moderated by Karan Johar.
Deepika Padukone recalls her Bollywood debut and why she never felt like an outsider.
Deepika Padukone has opened up about her Bollywood debut and shared how she never felt like an outsider, thanks to Farah Khan. The actress was speaking at the opening session of WAVES 2025 in Mumbai, where she was joined by Shah Rukh Khan in a conversation titled The Journey, moderated by Karan Johar.
During the chat, Karan brought up the insider versus outsider debate in the Hindi film industry. Deepika, who entered Bollywood in 2007 with Om Shanti Om, said, “These are terms that we seem to be discussing now, insider-outsider. When I began, it was just a new world. I was a 16-17 year old girl, came from Bangalore, and Farah Khan showed interest in casting me in a movie. I was transitioning between Bangalore and Mumbai at the time. She did an audition. I remember doing a meeting with her once. She said, I wanted to meet Shah Rukh once. He was shooting for Chakde in Australia at the time. She said once he’s back, we’ll do a meeting. That was it. For me, it just happened because I was a model before that. They’d seen some of my work. But I never felt like I was an outsider trying to make my place in a new industry. I had the dedication, I had the passion, I had the determination, the hard work. Those were the things in my control. And those were the things that I applied to what I was passionate about.”
Deepika’s debut film, Om Shanti Om, not only launched her into stardom but also marked the beginning of one of the most successful careers in modern Bollywood.
Shah Rukh Khan, who also came from a non-filmy background, chimed in with his own experience of breaking into the industry. He said, “Jab main yahan (Mumbai) aaya tha, I never thought ki main outsider hoon iss liye main iss duniya ka hissa nahi ban sakta… I believed this is my world… Mujhe laga yeh duniya meri hai… yeh jagah meri hai.”
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