Despite her prolific debut in 'Om Shanti Om', Deepika Padukone initially struggled to find her feet in Bollywood, battling poor dialogue delivery, a spat of flops, and not the best of acting abilities. But the model-turned-actress persevered, and her acting improved quickly, with 'Love Aaj Kal', 'Cocktail' and 'Yeh Jawani Hain Deewani' earning her several accolades. Some intermittent hits (Bachna Ae Haseeno, Housefull, Cocktail, Race 2, YJHD) Kept her in the game long enough to erase some of her more forgettable films.
But currently Ms. Padukone is undoubtedly number one, one may argue that Kareena taking a backseat due to her recent marriage may help, however, she seems to have blindsided Katrina, Priyanka and many others too on the way to the top.
With her 2013 line up (Race 2, YJHD, Chennai Express and Ram Leela), its interesting that these films all went to the very contemporaries she displaced.
While Race 2 was initially conceptualized with Kareena Kapoor in mind, Bebo bowed out due to Saif and her not wishing to repeat their unsuccessful pairing. Priyanka Chopra later signed on, but left citing 'date issues'. Deepika finally nabbed the project, and despite a tiff with the producers over her dates, ended up having the cake and eating it too, as the film moved on to become a commercial success.
'Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani' Was famously offered to Katrina Kaif first, who got cold feet over starring with Ranbir after their alleged affair on the sets of APKGK. The film later went to Deepika, who nailed the performance aplomb, and added another 100 crore film to her kitty too.
'Chennai Express' seemingly went to an array of actresses at various stages, while Bebo and Rohit both confirmed they were in talks about a project, it never took off with her, and Katrina, Priyanka and Asin were all linked at different times. However the OSO bond held strong, and Deepika looks set to have yet another blockbuster lined up with the film, and an interesting role too.
The one that may turn out to be the final feather in the her cap, is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Ram Leela. Bebo walked out the project at the last hour, making way for Deepika who gladly stepped in to fill Kareena's designer stilletos. SLB who is known to present his heroines beautifully and give them roles of a lifetime, despite being a hard taskmaster, is bound to tap her talent like never before.
Its a known fact in Bollywood, that one should never let an opportunity pass by, But we wonder what Kareena, Priyanka, Katrina will all have to say when they discover they unknowlingly let Deepika blindside them to the top with their own films.
On a final note, Hats off to Deepika, for seeing the potential these projects had, and showing us truly, that hard work does pay off.