Daughter of badminton player Prakash Padukone, Deepika also played the game during her teen age. She later left her badminton career to foray into modeling until she got her first acting assignment in a Kannada film titled 'Aishwarya' in 2006.
A year after her first break in regional cinema, Deepika bagged a role in 'Om Shanti Om' for which she also earned the Filmfare award for Best Debut that year.