Deepika Padukone on Cannes: You either come here with a film or you slay on the red carpet

At Cannes Film Festival, Anupama Chopra talks to Deepika Padukone about her red carpet style, and why she doesn’t bring Ranveer Singh there.

Any day that includes Pedro Almodovar and Deepika Paudkone has to be a good one. I sat down with Deepika just before a few hours before she left for the airport to return to Mumbai and Chhapaak. Her red carpet style has created quite the stir with Vogue USA and Variety giving it the thumbs up. “You either come here with a film,” she told me, “or you slay on the red carpet.” Or as Variety put it – you go big or you go home. Deepika also added that now that Cannes was done, she was already moving back into the character of Lakshmi, the acid-attack victim she plays in Chhapaak. When I asked her why she doesn’t bring Ranveer here (he seems to be custom-made for red carpets), she said he would be a better fit at the Met Gala. At Cannes, she would top him!

Deepika Padukone walks the red carpet at 72nd Cannes Film Festival.(REUTERS)

Pain and Glory is Almodovar’s 21st film. This semi-autobiographical film is a rumination on cinema, love, relationships, pain and the merciless passage of time. The wonderful Antonio Banderas plays a filmmaker Salvador Mallo who hasn’t created in a long time. The film moves between personal memories of his childhood and present day, when Salva is battling depression, back pain, a new fondness for heroin and loneliness. Pain and Glory is bittersweet. It’s aching but not hopeless. At one point, I found myself tearing up. It’s also visually stunning with lush colors and fluid transitions between memories, dreams and fantasy.

Deepika Padukone poses for the photographers at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. (REUTERS)

Another wonderful film I caught is Michael Covino’s The Climb, a buddy comedy like no other you’ve seen before. It begins with two friends bicycling – one is getting married, the other admits to sleeping with his fiancée and there starts a journey that travels over years through weddings, funerals, festivals, children. The Climb has wonderful performances, inventive writing that will make you laugh out loud and dazzling camerawork. In fact, I think a producer should buy the remake rights because, with a little bit of tweaking, it would make for a solid Hindi film!

WATCH: Cannes 2019 | Ranveer calls Deepika’s lime green look ‘nuts’

I also participated in the Rocketman junket today. The film based on the life of Elton John got a standing ovation at Cannes. I spoke with Taron Egerton who plays Elton John, director Dexter Fletcher and actor Bryce Dallas Howard who plays Elton’s mother. After the interview finished, Dexter told me that years ago, he had watched Kal Ho Na Ho in Delhi and loved it. Dexter finished Bohemian Rhapsody and and now has put his singular vision into Rocketman – the song sequences (one has a touch of India) are spectacular!

I’m hoping tomorrow will be warmer – today everyone shuffled around in the cold and the rain. On the red carpet however, the weather was irrelevant. Women dazzled as always. That’s what I call a commitment to duty.

Author tweets @anupamachopra

Follow her on Instagram @anupama.chopra

Follow @htshowbiz for more