But Deepika Padukone has not put academics on the back-burner and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts.

She has grabbed eyeballs with her performance in Om Shanti Om and is the latest Bollywood heart-throb.

But Deepika Padukone has not put academics on the back-burner and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts course at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

The 21-year-old rising star evidently has interest in socio-economic issues, as shown by her choice of subjects.

"Padukone is a student of BA course in IGNOU since 2005.

She has opted for sociology as her major with economics as a subsidiary subject," Srikant Mohapatra, the varsity's Registrar said.

Padukone, who did her schooling from Bangalore, moved to Mumbai to pursue her career in modelling.

"She has appeared in five papers at the end of the first year in 2006. She has done well in the exams," Mohapatra said.

As part of her course, Padukone will appear in 13 papers with total marks of 1200.

The papers she would take in Sociology are: Study of Society, Society in India, Sociological Thought, Society and Stratification, Society and Religion and Social Problems in India.

Similarly, in Economics, which she has taken as a subsidiary subject, Padukone will study Fundamentals of Economics and Agricultural Development in India.