India, Sept. 20 -- The doe-eyed Shantipriya and Sandy in Farah Khan's 2007 hit Om Shanti Om might have made Deepika Padukone a household name, but that wasn't her debut. The actor, whose mother tongue is Konkani, debuted in the film industry with a comparatively lesser-known Kannada film. Starring one of Sandalwood's superstars, Upendra, it was a commercial success at the box office.

Indrajit Lankesh was the director who introduced Deepika to the film industry with his 2006 hit Aishwarya, an official remake of Nagarjuna's Telugu hit Manmadhudu (2002), with portions inspired by Suriya's Tamil hit Ghajini (2005).

Indrajit played badminton with Deepika before he became a director and she became an actor. The actor's father is badminton pro...