Bollywood star Deepika Padukone has donned her final look at the Cannes Film Festival 2022.
The 83 actress, who was a jury member at the film festival for the first time this year, showed up to the closing ceremony in a ruffled white sari by Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, with a pearl necklace and striking kohl-rimmed eyes.
It wasn't the first time she wore a sari in the French resort town, where the festival began on May 17. For the opening ceremony, Padukone wore a gold and black sari with sequinned stripes by celebrity-favourite label Sabyasachi, part of the designer's Aakash-tara collection.
Padukone arrived in Cannes on May 16, after an 11-hour flight from Los Angeles. She shared a video of her arrival on social media.
“I'm confused about eating and sleeping. I don't know whether I want to eat or sleep. But I think eating is always a good plan,” she said in the video.
Before her arrival, Padukone was in San Diego to attend the Louis Vuitton cruise show on May 11. She's the first Indian to be named an ambassador by the French fashion house, and joined other ambassadors including Gemma Chan and Lea Seydoux.
The star-studded show was also attended by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour; Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, model Miranda Kerr, and actors Emma Roberts and Chloe Grace Moretz.
On the evening of May 16, Padukone joined the rest of the Cannes jury to pick winners from the 21 films in contention this year, including one for the coveted Palme d'Or, which went to Triangle of Sadness.
Besides Padukone, the jury, led by veteran French actor Vincent Lindon, included British actress and director Rebecca Hall; Swedish actress Noomi Rapace; Italian actress and director Jasmine Trinca; Iranian director Asghar Farhadi; French director Ladj Ly; American director Jeff Nichols; and Norwegian director Joachim Trier.
Padukone, dressed in a multicoloured and sequinned Louis Vuitton dress paired with thigh-high boots, waved to photographers from the balcony of the Hotel Martinez and posed for pictures with other jury members. Rapace did not attend the dinner.
While this was her first time as jury member, Padukone has been attending the Cannes Film Festival for more than 10 years as a L'Oreal ambassador, and has grabbed headlines for her eye-catching looks on the red carpet over the years.
The 75th Cannes Film Festival began with Oscar winner Forest Whitaker as the first guest of honour and Final Cut, a French zombie comedy, on May 17. Seven films from the Mena region were also screened at the festival.
The opening film, Final Cut, is a comedy love letter to filmmaking and Z-list zombie movies from the team behind the award-winning The Artist.
At a photocall for jury members on May 17, Padukone paid tribute to her Indian heritage with another ensemble by Sabyasachi, who recently worked on Natasha Poonawalla's headline-grabbing dress at the Met Gala.
Wearing a printed silk shirt and pleated wool trousers from the designer's Tropic of Calcutta collection, Padukone finished her look with a statement necklace made up of multicoloured gemstones and uncut diamonds.
“I love that moment of storytelling where looking back at the past reveals the future. For me, the best stories of India are always told in these moments,” the designer wrote on Instagram.
On Instagram, the designer said the piece at the opening ceremony “celebrates heritage Indian crafts and techniques through a modern lens”.
“The stripes have been block printed and hand embroidered by some of India’s finest craftspeople at the Sabyasachi atelier. The look is paired with statement pieces from Sabyasachi Jewellery’s Bengal Royale Collection. The headband pays homage to the traditional Indian matha patti headpiece with Art Nouveau detailing, while the chandelier earrings updates a classic with an Art Deco gaze.”
Scroll through the gallery below for saris on the Cannes red carpet over the years:
On May 18, Padukone attended the opening ceremony of the Indian pavilion at Marche du Film, the Cannes film market where India was named Country of Honour.
Dressed in a black suit featuring an asymmetric fitted jacket with open pleats by Swedish label Ardazaei, she finished the look with a neckpiece by Cartier. The necklace, from the jeweller's Panthere de Cartier collection, is made of 18-carat white gold, emerald and brilliant-cut diamonds totalling 19.05 carats.
Stylist Shaleena Nathani shared details of Padukone's look on Instagram.
At the Indian pavilion, Padukone joined actresses Tamannaah Bhatia, Pooja Hegde and Urvashi Rautela on stage and danced briefly with them.
“I feel we have a long way to go as a country, I feel really proud to be here as an Indian and to be representing the country. But when we look back at 75 years of Cannes, I have said earlier also that there have been only a handful of Indian films, and Indian talent that have been able to make it and I feel like collectively as a nation today we have it,” Padukone said.
On May 19, the third night of the festival, Padukone attended the premiere of the period drama Armageddon Time dressed in a red custom Louis Vuitton gown. She paired the peplum-syle dress that had a plunging neckline with a statement Cartier necklace.
“What dreams are made of,” her stylist Nathani wrote, along with pictures of the jury member.
Directed by James Gray, known for films such as The Lost City of Z and Ad Astra, Armageddon Time stars Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins and Jeremy Strong, and is set in 1980s New York, inspired by Gray's childhood. The film was one of 21 titles in contention for the Palme d'Or.
Padukone skipped red carpet duties on May 20, instead making an appearance at a dinner hosted by Louis Vuitton and Vanity Fair magazine. Dressed in a beige jacket dress paired with knee-high boots, she was seen alongside a number of Hollywood stars including Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander as well as Chinese Olympian Eileen Gu.
In one video she shared on Instagram, someone asks Padukone if she was tired.
“It's a different kind of tired,” she said with a smile. “It's that kind of tired, but with joy. When you go to sleep, you go to sleep with a smile on your face.”
Of her experience at the film festival as jury member, she told Variety she was having the time of her life.
“It gives me goosebumps every single time I walk into the Palais and we leave — it gives me goosebumps because every single person on that seat is there to celebrate cinema,” she said.
“You might love it, you might hate it, but everyone’s there just rooting for film, rooting for that experience. Everybody’s so disciplined, everyone is seated on time, everyone’s phones are switched off. Everyone waits for the end credits to happen. And everyone’s like clapping to the end. And everybody stands up.”
The actress also took time off to check out the sights in Cannes. Sharing videos from what looks like a photo shoot for Louis Vuitton, she can be seen walking in the street dressed in a black turtle neck top with checked shorts. In another video, she wears a white printed shirt paired with a bright pink skirt.
Padukone's jury service will now give her access to the jury box at every festival, and she told Variety she and her husband, Bollywood star Ranveer Singh, plan to take full advantage of it.
“We just come here for two weeks, nobody needs to know. Watch movies, sneak in, sneak out. We’ll be like kids in a candy store,” she said.
Padukone returned to the Cannes red carpet on Monday, the seventh day of the festival, in a black custom Louis Vuitton dress adorned with shimmering tassels and featuring a floor-sweeping train. Attending the premiere of South Korean romantic thriller Decision to Leave, which is competing for the Palme d'Or, jury member Padukone paired her dress with minimalist accessories, wearing a pair of earrings by Cartier, finishing off the look with black strappy stilettos.
Then on Tuesday, the star collaborated again with Saudi designer Mohammed Ashi's label Ashi Studio, arriving for the premiere of The Innocent in a striking orange strapless taffeta gown. The custom dress with drape details around the shoulder fit the star "like a glove", the label posted.
The look on Tuesday even caught the attention of Padukone's husband, Singh, who has not been shy about sharing his love and support for his wife.
Reacting to Padukone's post on Instagram, Singh commented on Tuesday: "This is everything."
Padukone has worn Ashi Studio at the Cannes Film Festival before, in 2018, when she walked in a pink origami gown by the label — a dress that made such an impact that the designer recreated a version for Beyonce for her performance at the Global Citizen Festival in South Africa that same year.
Following the screening on Tuesday, Padukone changed into another Ashi Studio creation, as she attended a dinner to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival.
The white suit, with dramatic balloon sleeves, was signature Ashi Studio, the Beirut label known for its architectural designs.
Clearly impressed by the dresses, a gracious Padukone even took the time off to thank Ashi for his creation. In a message shared by the designer, Padukone thanked him for "making me feel my most beautiful and most confident".
"I merely wear your creations. The emotion you see comes for you, and all I do is carry that emotion forward," she says.
For the star-studded premiere of Elvis on Wednesday, Padukone dialled up the drama with another look from Louis Vuitton, this time straight from the catwalk of the label's cruise 2023 collection, a show that the star attended this month.
Over a fitted black and gold gown, Padukone wore a giant bolero that took on the form of kite-like wings, almost like a piece of armour. Tinsel under the "wings" added to the striking look, fitting for a night that featured stars such as Tom Hanks and Austin Butler, who play Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley respectively, walking the red carpet.
The dramatic look was a far cry from the Richard Quinn dress Padukone wore, in pictures she shared earlier that day.
Shot on the street, the actress can be seen smiling in a strapless dress with matching stockings and shoes by the London designer, known for his wild flowery prints.
Scroll through the gallery below for Deepika Padukone's Cannes red carpet looks over the years:
