WORDS: TUSHAR A AMIN
PHOTOGRAPHS: AVINASH GOWARIKER
MAKE UP: MICKEY CONTRACTOR
STYLIST: MANISH MALHOTRA
 

Let’s start at the very beginning...
How far back do you want to go....?

Let’s just say all the way... your childhood, growing up as legendary Prakash Padukone’s daughter, how you deal with fame, success...
As far as I can remember, my childhood was as normal as anyone else’s. Because I had my friends who’d give me that reality check. I have seen the lifestyle that I had and the lifestyle my friends had and it has been more or less the same. It’s not like we had any special childhood because of who my father is. We didn’t get any extra perks. He did, but he never extended it to any of us because my parents believed in bringing us up as normally as possible, giving us as normal a childhood as possible. And we see that even with my father, inspite of his stature and the level of success that he reached, one has always spoken about how humble he is and how down to earth he is and he’s always told me that no matter how much success you get, try to be as humble and grounded as possible because you never know it is permanent or not. Today, it is there, tomorrow it may not be.

Was glamour always a part of life?
No! It was quite a conservative upbringing. No late nights. I was in an all girls convent
school. So for the longest time, I had not even spoken to boys. It’s only later, when I moved on to college that I started interacting with boys. I cannot even remember getting a monthly pocket money. There was no pocket money as such. I was just given the amount based on the need. For example, if I wanted to go for a movie. They knew how much a movie ticket costs. So, in addition to the ticket money, I would get, say fi fty rupees, to buy myself a meal at
KFC or to buy some popcorn. So, I used toget that exact amount and I had to come back and give an account of expenses and tell them where I spent what. That’s the kind of childhood I had. And as far as I can remember, I used to come back from school and head for court to play... It was just a natural thing to do. And before I knew it, I had started playing competitive tournaments.

When did you realise that you were beautiful?
Only when people started telling me. I still don’t know how people differentiate me from others. But its strange, because right from school I have always got a lot of attention. Whether it was for my height, or because of my looks or because I was Prakash Padukone’s daughter. I can’t tell for what I was getting that attention but I knew I got it. Not that it has ever affected me or that I have given it too much thought or too much importance, but it’s always been different.

Catch the complete interview in the August 2009 issue of FHM India.

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