Deepika Padukone featured in Nat Geo's Mega Icons, where she spoke about being the daughter of badminton legend Prakash Padukone, and following him in the field of sports. Sharing school memories, the actor talked about the special treatment she got from her teachers.
Deepika remembers giving all her time to badminton during her growing up years. Sharing her daily routine from dawn to dusk as a teenager, she said, “The routine was to wake up every morning like 4-5 am, go for physical conditioning, go back home, go to school. As soon as I would finish school, there was no time to chitchat with friends so I would get home, change, have a snack, go to the badminton court, have dinner, be exhausted by that point and go to sleep and then the same thing again.”
She added, “That was my life: No late nights, no TV, no movies. Sport teaches you sacrifice, discipline, dedication and determination.” Deepika said everything changed when she travelled to Copenhagen all by herself at 16. “When I came back, that was it.” She later went on to pursue modelling, and arrived in Mumbai at 17.
