Deepika Padukone: Characters like 'Padmavati' never really leave

Deepika Padukone is riding high on the success of her latest release Padmaavat. The Sanjay Leela Bhansali film is all set to cross the Rs 200 crore mark at the box office and Deepika, who plays Queen Padmavati in the film is over the moon. As she sits down for a group interaction with the media, she says, "I've had successful performances and successful films, performances that people have appreciated but somehow this time, it's a completely different energy that I am feeling. Of course, people are appreciating the film and the performance and all of that but there is a sense of blessing; a very spiritual experience that I feel this time."

Ask her if it's easy or difficult for her to leave behind a character like Padmavati and move on to the next one, the actress shares that such powerful characters never really leave her. "It's easy because I have to do it. But at the same time, it is hard because characters like these which are so powerful and (this is) a performance which has literally come from my gut. I had said this six months ago when I was promoting the film that they don't leave. If you ask me to do a scene from Piku today or if you ask me to play Veronica (from Cocktail) again, I think it would very easily come back to me. I don't think it would take me very long to get into that space again because a lot of these characters that you play impact your life in such a powerful way that they actually just don't ever leave and this one (Padmavati) is most definitely going to stay."

Now that she's been the face of a film of the magnitude of Padmaavat, leading it on her shoulders being the protagonist, will she be willing to do a masala pot-boiler or a multi-starrer film like Houseful? Deepika says that she wouldn't generalise the masala entertainer films as alot of the kind of movies that she's done earlier have contributed in some way or the other to her learnings in her journey so far. 

Deepika explains, "I might feel differently today about certain films, not about the decision at that point but like you said, moving forward, I don't know. I don't think I can make a sweeping statement saying ‘Those are not the kind of films I would do'. Because in all honesty people viewed ‘Chennai Express' also as one of those masala films not realizing that it was a really solidly driven film. I think it really boils down to what state of mind I'm in. Something that I want to do today, I may not want to do tomorrow and vice versa." 

She added, "It depends on the kind of energy I'm feeling and what do I have to put into a film and if I can make a character special. Maybe I can be a part of one of those ensemble films and make the character really special so it really depends. I have never been the one to just say no to something without knowing what the film is. I will always make an informed decision."