a red-carpet favourite at Cannes and the Met Gala, where she has appeared adorned in dramatic tulle confections and voluminous satin gowns.
But growing up, she was more familiar with sportswear than high fashion. The daughter of India’s first major badminton champion, Prakash Padukone, she played the game competitively in her youth. “My father sort of put India on the map as far as sport was concerned,” she tells me from her home in Mumbai. “I didn’t start off wanting to be an athlete, it began as this extra-curricular activity after school when my parents didn’t want me to sit in front of the television.
But before I knew it, I was playing badminton with commitment. ” As a teen, her days would start at 4. 30am with an initial round of training, then she would attend school and finish with a second session before doing her homework.
But at the age of 16, she took a break from the sport to study for her exams, “and it was after that when I said: ‘OK, I’m done with being a professional athlete’,” she explains. “That’s when I decided I wanted to pursue modelling. ”She has since become an ambassador for L’Oréal and is the first Bollywood actress to star in a global campaign for Louis Vuitton. “It’s iconic.
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