Deepika Auditioned For ‘Furious 7’ and Ended Up Doing ‘xXx’

Deepika Padukone speaks to The Quint about her big Hollywood debut.

Deepika Padukone and Vin Diesel pose for the cam. (Photo courtesy: Instagram)

In a first of sorts, the Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures cut a special promo of their upcoming film xXx: The Return of Xander Cage for the India market, specially focusing on Deepika Padukone. The trailer was shown at a preview on Friday to select journalists in Mumbai and is now available online after premiering on the first episode of Bigg Boss 10. Deepika showed up at the preview screening of the trailer and interacted with the press about her Hollywood debut.

Deepika Padukone at the preview screening of the trailer of xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. (Photo: Yogen Shah)

Speaking to The Quint, Deepika narrated how she became a part of the popular action-adventure franchise.

“I had actually auditioned for Furious 7, and they really liked me and wanted me to be a part of the film but then Ram Leela happened over here and I didn’t have the dates for Furious 7. However, when xXx was announced which is again produced by Vin Diesel, I got on board,” said Deepika.

So is Deepika playing an Indian in the film, because if you’ve seen the trailer, she does not put on any accent and retains her natural way of speaking English in the film. But at the same time her character is named Serena Unger. “I had discussed about that with my director DJ Caruso and we both agreed that this was not the kind of film where a character really needed a background or ethnicity so we’ve sort of kept it generic, because that’s not important to the plot or proceedings of the film,” she clarified.

With xXx: The Return of Xander Cage at the start in January 2017 and the most expensive Bollywood film ever Padmavati towards the end in November 2017, Deepika has two huge releases resting on her petite shoulders for next year.