Deepika is deservedly basking in the success of Padmaavat and the accolades her performance as Queen Padmini is bringing in. “The amount of love, support is unprecedented and most important the blessings that I am getting. I feel what have I done to deserve this (love)?” she has been gushing. “This role of a queen had no crutches like she doesn’t have a sword, she doesn’t get on a horse and goes on the battlefield — but there is sheer inner strength and resilience which I had to show through my eyes,” she has declared, sounding absolutely in awe of her character.

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Soon Padmavati will be a glorious chapter turned, as the actress shifts her attention to her next… The biopic on Sapna Didi, a feared Mumbai mafia queen of the ’80s, will be directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. And it is a film Deepika is hugely excited about. In fact, speaking about it in a recent interview she raved, “Of all the scripts I have heard in the last two years, I’ve been stuck on this one. He (Vishal Bharadwaj) brought this to me first, got me excited and then when I was ready to do it, he had moved on to something else. But, I persisted. It’s the one occasion where I pursued the director to make the film!”

Now that is news! Of course, the admiration is mutual. As Bhardwaj had stated, “I wrote the script of that film one to two years ago, but now I am directing it. So I am looking forward to working with Deepika because I like her body of work. She is a beautiful actress and I feel the camera loves her.” Describing Deepika as “one the finest actresses” in the country, he raved, “She is the combination of superstar and a good actor. It's a rare combination that a performer is a superstar and at the same time has great acting abilities. Deepika is one of them.”

Given Bhardwaj is one of Hindi cinema’s finest filmmakers with a slew of gems like Haider, Omkara and Maqbool to his credit, we can’t wait to see what the duo create this time, with the able addition of Irrfan Khan. And kudos to DP for chasing a good thing, too!