Deepika Padukone's 'first look' from Padmavati is a fake, says casting director

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati has been the subject of intense scrutiny — and why not? After all, it does star the industry’s most photogenic stars (Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor); has had enormous amounts of backstage drama even before going on the floors ( reports of a rivalry between the two leading men, Deepika’s glass-ceiling shattering paycheque ; protests over the film’s historical accuracy ; and some musical chairs-type changes in the project’s financial backers); and has a pretty gripping premise (Alauddin Khilji’s obsession with Rani Padmini). With details of the film being kept tightly under wraps by Bhansali, any little scrap of information that emerges is immediately pounced upon, and dissected. And so it was, that a sketch of Deepika’s ’look’ from Padmavati — shared on Facebook by the film’s casting director Shruti Mahajan — got a lot of attention. The sketch, rendered in pencil, depicts Deepika in full Rajput princess regalia, sporting traditional jewellery including a nathni and maang-teeka), with her hair covered by the diaphanous veil of her lehenga-choli outfit. It had elements of Aishwarya Rai’s get-up in Ashutosh Gowriker’s Jodhaa Akbar. [caption id=“attachment_3107944” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Deepika Padukone’s ’look’ from Padmavati. Image courtesy Twiter[/caption] The picture was shared several times on social media. However, it now emerges that the sketch is not, in fact, Deepika’s look from Padmavati. Shruti Mahajan took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce that the drawing had been picked up from an unverified account and she had not shared any such picture from her official handles. Mahajan added that Deepika’s look in the historical film was markedly different from the sketch that had been put out:

To immediately clarify that the sketch floating of Deepika Padukone was not posted from my official account@rohiniyer @ShobhaIyerSant

— Shruti MahajanCasting (@ShrutiMahajan01) November 15, 2016

is nowhere like Deepika's look in the film and it's definitely not from me @ShobhaIyerSant @rohiniyer @MediaRaindrop

— Shruti MahajanCasting (@ShrutiMahajan01) November 15, 2016

More from Entertainment

'Jugnuma' Movie Review: Manoj Bajpayee, Deepak Dobriyal, Tillotama Shome’s terrific performances stood out in this beautifully restrained way of storytelling ‘Real fight’ is between Karisma Kapoor and Priya Sachdev: Sunjay Kapur's mother's lawyer says in HC: 'Rani Kapur does get impacted by it but...'

The artist who had made the sketch later came forward to state that it was based entirely on his imagination, and that he hadn’t claimed that it was the actress’ look in Padmavati.

Its Not A Fake Acc But Dat Sketch Ws Based On My Imagination..and i dint anywer mention that it is her look @ShobhaIyerSant @ShrutiMahajan01

— prithvi.prabhu.art (@prithviprabhu1) November 15, 2016