Meghna Gulzar Choose Deepika Padukone for Chhapaak, Here’s Why
The most awaited film Chhapaak trailer gave us the goosebump when Deepika yells one she see her burnt face after the surgery. Filmmaker Meghna Gulzar who made film Raazi and now once again a real-life story of Laxmi Agarwal. The first trailer of the film is winning hearts. The film is based on Delhi’s acid attack survivor, Laxmi Aggarwal.
In an interview, Meghna said, “For me, it was important to take a face associated with beauty because when you distort it, as it would happen to a survivor, the contrast and impact is far stronger. Not everybody is Deepika Padukone, but these other girls were beautiful too and didn’t deserve this to happen to them. No girl deserves it going forward. I’m fortunate Deepika agreed to play the part.”
Talking about the use of prosthetics, Meghna added, “During our research, we discovered that Laxmi Agarwal’s pictures before the attack are strikingly similar to Deepika’s when she was young. There is an uncanny similarity in their physicality which shows up in the prosthetics. That was my starting point. Then came the larger thought of the impact of the message which would get magnified with her in the lead as Malti. The idea wasn’t to make Deepika look like Laxmi but to make her look like what she’d have looked, God forbid if something like this happened to her. The essence of Deepika is still there, particularly in her eyes.”
She was further asked about her parents, lyricist Gulzar and actor Rakhi — have watched the film, Meghna told, “Like always, I’d shared the script with him and got all emotional and teary-eyed. For me, it’s hard to tell if his reaction was coming from the film or because I had made it. He can be terribly biased, but I’m happy my parents are proud of my work.”
