Shah Rukh, Deepika: The CHANGE-MAKERS of Bollywood, 2013

Because: Deepika Padukone's rise to stardom has been swift and sure-footed since her dream 2007 debut with Shah Rukh Khan in Om Shanti Om.

With back-to-back hits like Race 2, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Chennai Express and Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela 2013, without a doubt, belonged to her.

-- By Sanjay Leela Bhansali

I've worked with some of the most beautiful and talented actresses of contemporary Indian cinema. Be it Manisha Koirala (Khamoshi: The Musical), Aishwarya Rai (Devdas, Guzaarish), Rani Mukerji (Black) or Madhuri Dixit (Devdas). They are extraordinary women with tremendous screen presence.

Working with Deepika Padukone in Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela was another experience altogether. She is outstanding.

Deepika came in to the project at a late stage. She worked doubly hard to fit into her character. At times the spoken and body language of Leela were beyond Deepika's grasp. She didn't hesitate in walking and dancing that extra mile to get into the skin of her character.

Deepika played a character named after my mother. She had a special way beyond anything anyone can expect from her. I just had to explain what I wanted.

She had never played such an unabashed character. Once in a while Deepika would get taken aback by her character's uninhibited behavior. But she would convey exactly what I wanted.

There is so much innocence in her expression of sexual curiosity. If I said to her that the lovers don't talk anymore but kiss because there is nothing more to be said, she knew exactly why dialogue was no longer required.

She made the expression of love so effortless and magical...

I don't think any other actress could have done what she has done; she has conveyed the purest form of love.

She gave all of herself to the music, became a part of the sound and danced like a dream. There would be laughter, joy and music on the sets all the time.

Of course, there were times when I would suddenly change the steps and Deepika would be thrown completely off-course. I don't like to rehearse too much for my song picturisations.

How brilliantly she adapted to my style. Deepika got blisters and wounds on her feet during the Garba song; still she'd say, "Let us do one more take." When Priyanka Chopra shot her song she said, "Good, we rehearsed for two days because when we shot the song we didn't use a single step from the rehearsals."

Deepika is as gorgeous and disciplined as Aishwarya. She has a very sharp mind. When she talks, she talks sense.

What I really like about Deepika is her no-nonsense attitude towards her work. She doesn't carry any baggage of social obligation to the set.

She is cultured, cordial and warm, but only to the extent that she needs to be as a professional. There is no pretence of making long-lasting friendships on the sets.

She is deeply committed to her work. And that is it.

I think doing Ram Leela liberated her on screen. She learnt how to surrender herself in the dance and emotions. I remember I gave her the film's toughest sequence to perform first. She rose to the occasion.

I would change pages of dialogues at the last moment. She would complain only half-heartedly. And then quickly get down to the task of getting it right.

Deepika has blossomed into one of our finest actresses. It would be interesting for me as a director to see where she goes next.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed Deepika Padukone in Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela.

As told to Subhash K Jha.

Kindly click Next to meet another Bollywood Change-Maker...

Because: One's feature length debut triumphed at Cannes as it won the Critics Week Viewers Choice Awards, the other's feature length premiered in 2012 at Toronto Film Festival.

Together, directors Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox and Anand Gandhi's Ship Of Theseus stole the limelight away from big-budget banners, opened the road to the theatres for star-bereft, content-driven Indian cinema and had global cinema sit up and take notice.

-- By Dev Benegal

Anand and Ritesh have done in two different ways something very unusual and special.

Anand's Ship Of Theseus particularly found an audience in India, and it connected and resonated with so many people here.

It achieved a very special kind of presence in the Indian box office and amongst the young Indian audience.

Anand is very good and talented at the way he was able to leverage social media in increasing the awareness and excitement, and the conversations and discussions around his film.

I met a large cross-section of people who really connected with the film. And it's a film about India, for Indians.

It was exciting to see how a film of that scale and size could actually find an audience. It reminded me a lot of the time when I made English, August and it was acquired by 20th Century Fox and released, which was quite unusual because we didn't have multiplexes at that time.

Fox released the film in 1,000, 1,200-seat single cinemas. We had a Rs 30,000 budget for publicity and there was no social media at that time.

What did help was a very focused campaign on television. 

Those were the days that people looked forward to going to see films. In many ways Anand's film reminds me of that feeling and excitement of wanting to go inside the cinema and see the film.

The Lunchbox has still not opened in the US. But Ritesh has achieved something remarkable in that the film has a real buzz amongst the trade and the buyers who are quite excited about it.

There is something very simple and yet approachable to a world audience about the way he tells the story and the way he represents this culture on screen. It will be interesting to see how it plays in the US.

The films for me represent two different dimensions -- one that has squarely worked well with an Indian audience, and the other that has a clear focus of a story out of India that works for a global audience.

The Indian film industry is well structured. It has got a clear and distinct model. It funds itself and has a way it sells its movies. It is a very successful model and I don't think it is going to change in a long time.

Both of these movies worked outside that model. They will continue to do what they will have to do.

I don't think the Indian mainstream game of Bollywood will change or it has to change. But I know that the audiences are looking for something fundamentally new and different and that is not being recognised by the mainstream cinema, because they keep doing their own thing ad infinitum, with a conviction that whatever they are doing is going to work, not realising that there are options and different kinds of movies that could work equally well.

What is really exciting about these two films is that they are just the tip of the iceberg. The number of young, aspiring filmmakers and screenwriters I meet who are dying to make films for an international audience, but trying to tell Indian stories is remarkable.

They are trying to make films outside the stifling Bollywood model of filmmaking.

These two films shine a light on this future and they say -- 'Hey guys, it is possible; you just need to pursue your dreams. You don't have to follow the Salman, Shah Rukh, Aamir cinema model. There is another world and that world may be even more financially successful than this.'

Dev Benegal, the director and screenwriter, is best known for his debut film, the award-winning English, August.

As told to Aseem Chhabra.

Tomorrow: Meet some more Bollywood Change-Makers...