Deepika Padukone is ecstatic!

This was one happy turn of events that even Deepika Padukone might not have dreamt would happen to her.

It was just about a year ago that she was a 'fresh face' model at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week. And on Day II, as she arrived to walk the ramp, she was a diva, a Bollywood actress now, and an A-lister at that! Just that morning, she was shooting for "Imtiaz Ali's next. The shooting was at Qutub Minar. And no, it hasn't been titled yet," she says.

But not for a moment did Deepika Padukone show any signs of, to use the oft used phrase, 'having arrived'. She was familiar with the layout of the backstage, and moved with ease between the greenroom and the make-up room backstage. And even as people jostled for her photographs, she smiled, and spoke to those whom she was familiar with, as if she was still one of them.

"I am," she smiled, when asked how it felt to be on the top, so to say, now. "Everything is the same. The choreographers, the designers, the co-ordinators, and some of those who are backstage are the same too."

But, now she's a star... "No. That has made no difference. Everyone has been as warm and appreciative today as ever," smiles Deepika, as the make-up person gives her eyelids a few deft strokes of dark shadow. "Everything is so exactly the same that I don't feel the time lapse. When I came here, I felt as if the last one year hadn't happened to me," she adds. But she did rush for rehearsals.

Did she feel the need for practice now? "That was something I was very particular about even then. Last minute rehearsals are very important," says Deepika. By now, it's time. Deepika needs to get into the dress she has to walk the ramp in. Just how does it feel to be back on the ramp?

"I am excited. A bit nervous too," she admits. "But, this is where I started, and I am sure I am going to enjoy coming back here again and again," she says, minutes before she sails out on to the ramp, amidst thunderous applause.