Sarita A Tanwar (DNA; June 2, 2015)

Deepika Padukone played the ideal daughter in her last release Piku. Off-screen, that part comes easily to her. She is currently planning a bash for her dad Prakash’s 60th birthday along with her mother and sister. All this is happening between Mumbai and Bengaluru.

In the film, she and her screen father are often seen bickering over household issues. Ask her how similar is her relationship with her father in real life to the one in Piku, and she says, “Similar and different at the same time. Similar from the comfort point of view, the love and respect that I have for my father and the comfort that I share with him. But like all daughters, I look up to him and like every woman wants her husband to be like her father, I do too. So, of course, all of that is there though I do believe that people like my dad are extremely rare. and what’s different is the age factor. Bhashkor’s age in the film and the issues that he deals with are very, very different from what my dad is going through, but I guess what I can definitely say is that I think Piku has prepared me for my parents’ latter years.

Money-wise
On screen, she and her Baba fight over things like the maid and salt in the food, among other things. What do she and Prakash Padukone argue about? She smiles, “Finances. Though he knows I am pretty conservative when it comes to my spending. Like when we go on holidays, for example. I feel we take holidays so rarely... and family holidays even rarer. So when we do, I want to make it as special as I can for them. But then he’ll be like ‘No, no this hotel is too expensive..’ That’s where we disagree. Then I have to convince them by saying, ‘Oh we go out so rarely” and then we find a middle ground eventually. Eventually, he is like, ‘Fine, it’s your money so it is up to you but as a father, it is my responsibility to tell you.’ But they trust me like that and I am pretty conservative.”

Figuring it out
Like even now my dad is going to be 60, so we are figuring out what to do. So I am like doing his planning and all and I keep getting emails back from them saying “No, no this is too much.’ I am like ‘It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.’