Hi, I’m Deepika Padukone, I’m an actor, producer, and philanthropist. I’ll be opening up my little black book and bringing you into my world.
The Importance of Skin, Hair, and Beauty
So another very important part of my little black book is skin, hair, and everything to do with feeling and looking beautiful and glamorous. I feel like we all grow and we all evolve, and sometimes things that you don’t like, you kind of embrace them. For example, I didn’t ever like a center parting slick hair, and now we do it all the time. There was a time when I didn’t like doing anything under the eye, and now I love sort of, you know, just that little definition under the eye with mascara. I’m sure in this entire process, there have been tons of looks that I would look back at and be like what was I thinking? I can’t think of one, I can actually think of one. If there’s one thing that I’ve really consciously tried to stay away from is to learn to do my own hair and makeup; I really would leave that, my styling included, to the professionals.
Working with My Makeup Artist
I’m Sandhya Shekar, I’ve been working with Deepika for over a little two and a half years now. I’ve been working with her for about 10 years. The event was in Macau and we were at an after party and I was having a little dance and Deepika comes up and we had a little dance together and she said you know, I’ve been trying to work with you so many times but you’re always busy, and I said you’ve got to book in advance Deepika, I said you’ve gotta, you know if you know your dates in advance, just book in advance. That’s when it really started happening and we started working together a lot, so that’s where the bonding really happened, and not only the professional friendship but also the friendship within that blossomed and the trust and the comfort factor and everything that goes along with it.
The Journey to Celebrity Makeup
I had done about close to eight years in the industry and I remember that I was nowhere interested in doing celebrity makeup, but I also remember that the only person that I was keen to work with was Deepika and one day, I get this call because I’ve worked with her stylist, Shelina, and I think she had suggested me and the next thing I know, I got a call from Deepika’s team saying that we want you to do her makeup for like a small event, and that’s how it happened and it was an instant connection. She was extremely warm; she was exactly the same person that you know, I had seen her off and when I met her personally, that was instant connection for the two of us.
Deepika’s Signature Look
I feel like I went through a phase when clean, beautiful skin, focus on the lashes and a bright, red mouth, it’s almost like if anyone else did a red mouth, it was like that’s Deepika’s look. I don’t like too much foundation; I don’t like caking too much or layering too much. I like my freckles to show through or any discoloration that I might have on my skin. I really don’t mind all of those things coming through, because when it’s cakey, I don’t know, I get really conscious of that. I just feel like I wanna see my skin.
Makeup Routine and Preferences
I think Deepika’s signature look would be the no makeup look; I don’t have to put like more than two drops of foundation on her. Natural warm tones is her go-to colors. In terms of blush, we generally stick to, you know, palettes like these which are warmer, which is more closer to her skin tone. She’s excellent at doing her own brows. It’s been two and a half years and I’ve never done her eyebrows ever; that’s because I trust her the way she does it, so she does her own brows for everyone out there who doesn’t know.
The Iconic Om Shanti Om Look
I remember the very first movie that I did, Om Shanti Om. Shantipriya, the character that I played is a yesteryear heroine and to help me look like a yesteryear heroine, the eyeliner was the focus, and the eyeliner that we used in that movie became extremely popular after that. Every makeup artist that I worked with, brides would go up to them during their wedding day and say they wanted the Shantipriya eyeliner, that’s the name of my character, or the Deepika eyeliner. It was the signature sort of winged liner that I did for many, many years.
The Difference Between Film and Editorial Work
With film, it’s very different; I mean it’s quite restrictive hair-wise in a sense because obviously the actress is playing a character. Film work’s hard because obviously well myself being such a perfectionist as well, I do tend to get a little bit flustered because you know, continuity issues, hair moves all the time. Editorial’s my favorite because obviously you can be more creative, and what I love about editorial is that you’re creating an image, and you’re creating a beautiful image.
The Creative Process
When it comes to deciding a specific look, we end up doing a lot of research with the latest runway looks that are out there, a lot of editorial looks that are out there. It’s a team collaboration. You know, I’ll come up with certain ideas or the stylist might come up with certain ideas or the makeup artist; we’re all a great team, we work really well together, we trust each other, we respect each other.
Preparing for Major Events
Once the outfit is ready, I take to her at least two or three different looks that I think would work with that particular outfit. Cannes happens after Met so it’s a little chaotic because we’re pretty much like finishing Met and then running to Cannes. Cannes gives us that creative element of yeah, being fashionable and being creative, but at the same time, it’s still gotta look beautiful and still gotta work on camera and work on her; you know, she’s gotta look amazing. Really sold the outfit; really just the dress was like wow, blown away. It was pretty spectacular. As soon as Sandhya, the makeup artist, and myself saw the headband, we were like, we love the headband and Deepika was like yeah, I’m up for it, I love it too, and so she tried it on and we’re like yeah, this is it.
Working on Deepika’s Wedding
It was a lot of fun working on Deepika’s wedding. Obviously, one of her biggest days in her life and such an honor to be a part of that; it was a lot of fun. First of all, Deepika trusts me a lot; obviously, we have that kind of a relationship. So we didn’t have to do any trials or anything like that. But we did have like a small wine and cheese party at her place where we were just discussing looks. It’s a special day; it’s a very special day, so you know, there’s photos, there’s videoing, there’s all sorts of stuff, and they’re long days. After events, the partying, the dinners, this and that, she’s gotta look fantastic. She’s, the hair’s gotta last. The last thing you want is hair coming out, bothering in her face or this and that and the other, so the hair had to be simple, it had to be super chic and very sturdy so that it held all the jewelry, the Indian jewelry, and the dupatta, the veil on top, and you know, all that stuff that went along with it, so there’s a lot of heaviness there. Also, the back of the bun, you know, which you couldn’t see because of the veil but there was a lot of beautiful gajra; they’re basically rows of jasmine blossoms, so it was all filled in the back with that, and it was quite extraordinary. She looked spectacular. A lot of times it was picking up hues and tones from the outfit that she was wearing. She was wearing a lot of these beautiful designer outfits from Ser Versace and I think one or two from like Abu Jani and Sandeep; it was like pushing my own limits with Indian wear, which I was very happy about, I think she was very happy about as well. So creatively it’s been very enriching, I must say, because she’s somebody who completely trusts me with what I do and that’s something that we’ve worked on for the last few years that we’ve been working together.
Coming Into My Own
I feel like I really and truly came into my own in 2011, 2012; I was doing this movie called Cocktail and I played this character called Veronica. Up until then, I led a life where I was conducting myself in a way that one is expected to or speak a certain way or dress a certain way, and I feel like through that movie and through that character, I actually somewhere started becoming comfortable with myself and I felt like from then on, whether it’s anything big or small, any decision or choice that I’ve made in my life, I feel like I’ve been honest in those choices and I feel like I feel truly liberated from that time on, and I feel like it shows in my characters, in my movies, and in everything else that I do.