Be it in a hot pink, ruffled gown or dramatic lime-green tulle, Deepika Padukone has been making heads turn — and her presence felt — at the Cannes Film Festival since 2010. But this year will be different. That’s because at the 75th edition ofthe festival, which kicks off today, Deepika will join celebrated cinema personalities from around the world, like actresses Rebecca Hall and Noomi Rapace, actor-director Jasmine Trinca and directors Asghar Farhadi, Jeff Nichols, Ladj Ly and Joachim Trier, as a member of the Cannes jury, led by actor-filmmaker Vincent Lindon.

For Deepika, this milestone isn’t just a personal one. Rather, she sees it as a larger victory for “everyone from our part of the world”.

“After being an actor for 15 years, for your work to finally be recognised on a global platform such as this, and to be able to represent the country, obviously, there is a sense of gratitude and being extremely overwhelmed,” says the actress, as she talks to us before leaving for Cannes. She also tells us how she intends to embrace this new role, the evolving Indian cinematic landscape and more. Excerpts:

Though she’s maintained her stronghold in Bollywood for many years now — having proven her acting chops in Gehraiyaan (2022), Chhapaak(2020) and Piku (2015), to name a few — and been-there-donet hat in Hollywood (with Vin Diesel’s xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage), is this recognition on a global scale something she’d planned for, or saw coming?

“I mean, I always had this, sort of, core belief — that if your energy is behind something with the right intention, then it will happen. All you need is the right intention, and also, I think, patience. So, somewhere deep down inside I have always believed that — and I am not saying this for myself, but on behalf of all South Asian talent in general — ‘this is where we belong’. And it feels like that’s finally happening now. It should have happened much earlier, but I guess, it took its own time. It’s taken generations of work from different people to get us to this place.”

Deepika adds, “And somewhere, I feel gratitude also for being able to contribute in my own small way. To be able to put India on the global map... in that sense, I don’t look at it as just a personal victory, I also look at it as a much larger victory for everyone from our part of the world.”

After having represented India on the red carpet, Deepika now looks forward to doing so as a jury member. She says, “In the past whenever I went to Cannes, the expectations were very different. There was a ‘fun element’ in the previous times that I have gone there, and that is something I have been unapologetic about. But now, I think, as a jury member, there is a different sort of mindset that I will be going with. So, you know, one has to sort of prepare accordingly.”

Over the years, while Cannes has seen several Indian jury members, celebs on the red carpet and film screenings, Indian films have been missing from the prestigious competition categories since the ’90s. What’s lacking?

Deepika replies, “Well honestly, I think India, in itself, is such a large country of 1.3 billion people. There are so many countries within our own country. I think a large part of our creative energy has gone into, sort of, servicing that, and fulfilling those needs. And I think it is only a matter oftime until we see that sort of global breakthrough.”

And with Indian cinema seeing an overhaul of sorts in recent times – with the rise of regional cinema, cross-collaboration between Bollywood and other industries, building up and breaking down of terms like ‘pan-India’ – Deepika feels “it’s going exactly in the direction where it should be going, and the direction it should have gone in a while ago.”

She says, “Globally, Indian talent and movies are, of course, recognized, but within India also we are seeing a shift. We are moving towards a place now where you see India truly coming together. I think, earlier, we worked in isolation – there was a Hindi film industry, a Telugu film industry, a Tamil industry and a Malayalam industry... And now those guardrails are coming down. I think, there just seems to be a lot more crosscultural acceptance, as there should be.”

The role of a jury member should come easy to Deepika, who doesn’t like to play favourites with films even as an audience member. “As an actor, you try and watch as many films as possible from different genres and parts of the world. And whether it is a good film or a bad film, there is always something to learn from it. Academically, when you look at films, there is always something to learn from any film you watch.”

However, while talking about her exposure to global and Indian cinema, Deepika says she has a lot of catching up to do. “I’m someone who started watching movies quite late in life. I was an athlete before I became an actor. A lot of my friends from the industry have grown up watching a lot of movies, and I remember when I first came to the industry, I used to talk to them, and I would feel completely out of place as they would always talk about films that they have seen and references and dialogues that were completely alien to me, because I came from a completely different background. My life growing up was very different. I was at the badminton court, and it was a very structured and disciplined life, in that sense. There was no time for movies. In a year, I would hardly watch one or two movies. So it’s only now in the last couple of years, since I became an actor that I started (watching films). Of course, I have a lot of catching up to do.”