Deepika Padukone's 2025 hasn't been a great one yet. Earlier this year, she was removed from Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Prabhas-starrer Spirit, a development that stirred up a massive controversy between the two camps. Like every big incident, there were two sides to the story and plenty of opinions. The bottomline is that Deepika was axed by the makers who then roped in Tripti Damri for the role. On Thursday (September 18), the producers of Kalki 2898AD, Vyjayanthi Films, took to social media to announce the removal of Deepika from the film's sequel. If the Spirit debacle created a stir, the latest development is a bigger shock, given that Deepika plays one of the pivotal characters in the Kalki 2898AD universe.
The common factor to the two films that she has been axed from, is Prabhas and the fact that both films are big-budget flicks that are amongst the most hyped films in the industry. There were polarised opinions when the Spirit news came out, with a larget set of people taking Deepika's stance while another section felt that Vanga was on the right side. The trends at the moment, though, seem to be overwhelmingly against Deepika because an artist being dropped from two films in the same year for similar reasons doesn't paint the person in good light.
However, Deepika has always been controversy's child, or rather friend. Here, we take a look at some of her major controversies of different kinds.
1) The Race 2 fiasco (2012)
This was one of the major incidents at the time, given that Deepika had started to be a star in demand. Also, the Race franchise had its own share of hype. After the film had started shoot, Deepika reportedly walked out of the project after having allegedly received an offer from Hollywood. Her decision to leave the project was spontaneous and her lack of communication clearly upset veteran producer Ramesh Taurani who had funded the film.
"I went to her shooting. We tried to reason it out with her. But she refused to even listen. Forget about anything else, she did not even apologise for her action. She seems to have no remorse" Taurani had said in a statement.
"I have been part of the Hindi cinema industry for 25 years. I have made several blockbusters. But I have never faced a situation like this before. Our directors and other actors are extremely annoyed with her."
However, Deepika did eventually complete the project and her change of mind was reportedly due to Ranbir Kapoor's intervention.
2) Controversial statement for Vogue India in 'My Choice' video (2015)
Deepika's collaboration with Vogue India was for women empowerment and subsequently, a video titled 'My Choice' was shot with the theme being about how women deserve their freedom. The intention was to spread social awareness and also champion the rights of women in the country. However, Deepika's comments in the video about extra-marital affairs created a furore. The superstar actress's words echoed the freedom for women to do anything that they wanted but also had 'infidelity' in her sentences. This naturally created shockwaves on social media with Deepika getting slammed from all quarters. Later on, in an interview, Deepika stated that the video didn't represent her own opinion and criticised the public for misinterpreting the video.
3) The JNU incident (2022)
In 2022, days before the release of her social drama Chhapaak, Deepika visited the JNU campus to show her support for the students who were protesting against the attacks at the university. There was also a matter of fees hike which sparked the outrage from students. Deepika's visit didn't have a speech and was outright silent in its effort, but the timing of her visit drew criticism. While the protests were on for a very long time, Deepika's decision to visit only days away from her release had people slamming her for being an opportunist.
4) The exclusion from Spirit (2025)
When Deepika was signed as the lead actress for Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Prabhas-starrer Spirit, the hype levels had shot through the roof. There were reports in the Bollywood media about how Deepika's character in the film would be a robust one, something that impressed her a lot on hearing the script. However, a few months later, she left the project after disagreements with Vanga. As she was new to motherhood, her demands were for an eight-hour work shift and allegedly, that demand was turned down. The other angle to this is that Vanga wanted her to speak her dialogues in Telugu but Deepika objected it and also asked for a bigger paycheck as well as profit share. All this triggered Vanga who then opted for Tripti Damri for the role.
5) Gets dropped from Kalki 2898AD sequel
With the Spirit episode yet to fully die down, Deepika got axed from another Telugu project, coincidentally another Prabhas-starrer, the sequel to Kalki 2898AD. The development was announced by the producers Vyjayanthi Films who released an official statement on the same. While more details are not known yet, the statement clearly hinted at lower commitment levels from Deepika who has also been accused of having demands similar to the Spirit episode. There should be a statement from her side soon, like there was after she was dropped from Spirit.
Deepika is arguably one of the finest actresses of this generation. However, he constant tryst with controversies and the two recent episodes with big films tell us that there could be more to the matter.