Actor Deepika Padukone was recently seen at an event talking about her education and early modelling days struggle. Deepika was speaking at the launch of veteran actor Hema Malini’s biography “Hema Malini: Beyond the Dream Girl”.
During Deepika's interaction with the audiences and media, the actress said that she found it difficult to finish her 11th and 12th grade in her hometown of Bengaluru because of her modelling assignments. She was a successful model back then and ultimately abandoned attempts to complete her college education.
She is what she said, "Even my 11th and 12th, I struggled to finish. I was already a very successful model, and I was based in Bengaluru but I had to keep travelling to Delhi and Mumbai for work. I couldn't keep up. Then I ultimately finished my 12th and I tried to do one year of my degree. I couldn't do that, I then tried to do distance education, I couldn't complete that as well so I'm just a 12th pass."
She also added, “My parents back then had a big issue with that because they always wanted me only to start working after having a basic college degree. The very conservative Indian way of looking at it is that you need to have something to fall back on."
Deepika's parents Prakash and Ujjawala Padukone have since, presumably, made their peace with Deepika's decision, and given that their elder daughter is the highest-paid female star in the film industry, allegedly charging a fee of Rs 12 crore per movie.