15 years of Om Shanti Om: Here's how Deepika Padukone landed the role opposite Shah Rukh Khan without audition

Deepika Padukone in a still from Om Shanti Om

Deepika Padukone made her debut in the Hindi film industry, 15 years ago today. She starred opposite Shah Ruh Khan in Farah Khan's hit film O Shanti Om. She played a double role in a film that spanned two different eras.

Recently, in a podcast with The Business Of Fashion, BOF, Deepika talked about how she landed a role in Shah Rukh Khan starrer 'Om Shanti Om', without even an audition."Farah Khan, who is the director I debuted with, saw this photoshoot and took it to Shah Rukh Khan. He was doing a film called Chak De! India in Australia. Farah took these photos and showed them to Shah Rukh and told him, "She's the face. I found the face". They were looking to cast a new face and mind you, a double role of one character who is like the old world Bollywood heroine Hema Malini or Wahida Rehman, and the other role was this young Indian modern woman. Without auditioning me or without having ever met me, she took the pictures to Shah Rukh."

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Deepika further shared that SRK gave Farah the green signal from his end and the next thing she knew was that she was working with India's biggest superstar Shah Rukh Khan and one of India's biggest female directors in her first Bollywood movie, without auditioning. Deepika talked about how she still asks Farah about her instincts and how she thought that she was fit to play Shantipriya and Sandy in Om Shanti Om.

Om Shanti Om was one of the biggest hist of 2007 and served as the perfect launch film for a newcomer. The film gave Deepika commercial success and the actress has never looked back ever since. Since then, Deepika has worked with Shah Rukh Khan in two other films- Chennai Express, Happy New Year, of which the latter was directed by Farah Khan. Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika will once again share screen for the upcoming film Pathaan.