Deepika Padukone says she never auditioned for Om Shanti Om; here’s how she got the role opposite Shah Rukh Khan

Deepika Padukone is undoubtedly one of the biggest stars in Bollywood today. She made a stellar debut in the Hindi film industry, opposite none other than Shah Rukh Khan, in Farah Khan’s 2007 directorial Om Shanti Om. The actress recently revealed that she landed the iconic role without an audition, and opened up about how Farah had discovered her.

During her appearance on The Business of Fashion podcast, Deepika opened up about how she had had a ‘gut feeling’ that she would become an actress. When she was an athlete, she knew she wanted to be a model, and when she was a model, she had an intuition that she would make a foray into acting as well. She revealed that when she knew that movies would ‘happen’ to her, and that it was not something she willingly pursued.

She spoke of how she had started modelling right after school, and how she did a calendar spread. One of her photoshoots had caught Farah’s eye, and the director had shown the photos to Shah Rukh Khan, saying that she had found ‘the face’ she had been looking for. The makers were looking to cast a ‘new face’ in the film, Deepika revealed.

When Farah had asked for SRK’s opinion, the superstar had said that if Farah believed that Deepika was what the film needed, then it was great. Deepika went on to say “The next thing I know I was cast opposite Shah Rukh Khan, India’s biggest superstar, with one of the biggest female directors in India in my first Indian (Bollywood) movie. Without auditioning”.

Deepika added that she still used to ask Farah what the director was thinking while casting the former. To this, Farah had simply said that she saw in Deepika’s eyes that she had ‘it’.

Om Shanti Om, which also stars Arjun Rampal, Shreyas Talpade and Kirron Kher, is available for streaming on Netflix.