Deepika Padukone, at 23, has a sage word of advice for everyone, from her sister Anisha, a golfer, to Saina Nehwal, badminton player and India’s Deepika PadukoneMore Pics
latest female pin-up sportstar. But she doesn’t want to be called ‘wise’ – she’s just 23, after all, she protests!

So ‘23 and unwise’ is cool with her, is it? With a flash of her famous dimple, the actress, who’s going to be in Delhi soon, says, “Not unwise also. I like the fact that I’m a little more mature than the average 23-year-old. As long as I don’t sound like a 50-year-old, it’s fine.”

So what is her advice for Saina, who recently clinched a win over the higher-ranked Chinese player Lin Wang in Jakarta? Deepika, who’s played badminton herself, thanks to Prakash Padukone, her father, says, “I watched that game. Saina played brilliantly. I could see the exhaustion on that other girl’s face. Even Saina was tired, but I guess she was a little better than the other girl and she truly deserves it. My father has devoted his life to badminton and Saina’s achievement is his achievement too. My only advice to Saina is not to lose her head over endorsements, film offers and all the media attention. She should remember that all that’s coming to her because of what she is, and she is, first and foremost, a good badminton player,” she says.

She repeats that – that she doesn’t want Saina to get carried away. Does she think that that is the trend with young sports personalities? “Some of them, yes. I won’t take names. But there are people who do get swayed by the sudden overnight attention and somewhere, they forget what their main purpose in life is. Sometimes the money is great, but that should not sway you. I’m doing my endorsements because of what I primarily do, which is films,” she adds.

So her work is going great guns – but what about her personal life? Has she found ‘true love’ in Ranbir Kapoor? “Of course, and that’s why we’re comfortable talking about each other, because we’re sure of what we’ve gotten into. I do not give away too many details because that means being unfair to him and the relationship. But I give the relationship respect by at least accepting and admitting the fact that we’re together. Even that wasn’t a conscious decision, it just felt right. We started seeing each other, people asked us and we said ‘Yes’. We don’t think about what we have to say,” says Deepika.

Despite all that attention, Deepika is pleasantly surprised at the number of people who know her. While she was in Kochi shooting for Karthik Calling Karthik with Farhan Akhtar, she narrates, a large group of students came to their film’s sets. “Many of them didn’t even understand Hindi, but it was nice to know that they made the effort to figure it out. It was humbling to know that they’re aware of my existence. We got a lot of recognition. The people there sang songs from my films and called me Shantipriya (her character in Om Shanti Om) and also sang Farhan’s songs from Rock On!!,” Deepika says.