When Deepika Padukone announced that she’d be portraying Laxmi Agarwal; one of the acid attack survivors, the entire world went into a wave of confusion about how would she be able to pull that off. But, on Human Rights Day, i.e. December 10th 2019, Deepika Padukone dropped the trailer of her movie, and the same confused people were evident that there is nothing in this world that Deepika can’t pull off.
“Chhapaak” is a real-life movie that revolves around Malti, an acid attack survivor, and her journey to get justice. The film is a real-life story based on Laxmi Agarwal, who is a real-life acid attack survivor. The movie stars Vikrant Massey who plays Amol along with Deepika Padukone. The movie’s trailer starts with the protest going on Delhi roads about Malti’s acid attack case. In the next scene, Malti falls on the ground after being attacked by acid.
Chhapaak follows the journey of Malti and how she wins her battle against the crime committed against her. There are instances in the trailer that will give you goosebumps because you’d start to think how hard and painful it would have been for her to survive the attacks. You’d witness love story between the lead pair and how the love blooms amid all the chaos and how Malti finds a hope to live.
Vikrant Massey portrays a character of social activist and journalist, which is inspired, by the nature of Alok Dixit who is Laxmi Agarwal’s real-life partner. Laxmi Agarwal was attacked way back in 2005 when she was only 15. She was attacked by a 32-year-old assailant when she refused to his advances. The man was known to the family.
Bollywood fraternity came out in support of the entire team of Chhapaak by pouring out there hear felt wishes. Deepika’s husband, Ranveer Singh, was among the first ones to comment on the trailer and share the joy of being a proud husband. He said on the trailer “Astonishing, What a remarkable prospect! Proud of you baby! I love you! Go get them!” The Bajirao Mastani actor also shared a few posters of the movie on his Instagram in support of the team. Vikrant Massey thanked the actor for showing his support to the movie.
Deepika’s co-star and friend Priyanka Chopra Jonas also commented on the actress’ trailer video, “Amazing.” Whereas Priyanka’s sister Parineeti Chora took her twitter account and shared the poster of the movie and captioned, “ARE YOU SERIOUS. Love, it!”
Rangoli Chandel has all praises for the actress. Rangoli Chandel, Kangana Ranaut’s sister, is also an acid attack survivor and thus, explains why this movie is a step she needs to see. She tweeted “Wow!! Everyone should see this film amazing.” In her next tweet, Rangoli mentioned “Meghna and Deepika will earn a lot of tears from this film, what my family and I went through along with the prejudice we face was worse than death. A story of an acid attack survivor needs to reach this nation, praying that it works. “
Alia Bhatt shared the poster of the movie on her Instagram story and showered love and wishes to Deepika and the team of Chhapaak.
Ranveer Singh’s Gully Boy co-star Siddhant Chaturvedi commented on the trailer, ‘Unho ne meri soorat badli hai, mera mann nahi…’ Goosebumps.
Actress Bipasha Basu also praised the Padmaavat actress by commenting “Powerful and strong.”
Vicky Kaushal tweeted, ‘How amazing is this! Can’t wait already. Best wishes to Team #Chhapaak.”
Ranveer’s best bud in the industry, Arjun Kapoor also lends his warm wishes and love towards the team of Chhapaak by tweeting about the movie on Twitter. He wrote, “Beautiful. Deepika Padukone, Meghna Gulzar, and the entire team deserve to be given credit for this remarkably accurate visual portrayal.”
Rajkumar Rao who is known for portraying groundbreaking roles onscreen praised the actress and the entire team of Chhapaak. He tweeted, ‘this is brilliant. Can’t wait to see you as #Malti. It’s a path-breaking. More power to you Deepika.”
Actors including Isha Koppikar, Kartik Aaryan, Varun Dhavan, Anaita Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandez, Pooja Hedge, Bhumi Pednekar, Zareen Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Siddharth Malhotra, Neha Dhupia, etc. praised the entire team of Chaapaak. The Bollywood fraternity was all in praises and applauded for the team of Chhapaak for taking up such a bold topic to showcase onscreen. Ayushamann Khurrana’s wife Tahira Kashyap said, ‘I am speechless. Teary-eyed and a lot more that I can’t express. Thank you for making this film.”
The audience who saw the trailer poured their hearts and wishes on Deepika’s and Vikrant’s Instagram account as well. The makers of the movie attempt to understand the on-ground consequences of surviving an acid attack in India, the medico-legal social state of affairs that transpires after the acid’s been hurled.
During the launch of the trailer, when Deepika was asked about how she felt about portraying a character of an acid attack survivor, Deepika just mentioned that after she saw herself in the mirror after their first look test, she thought herself. That’s how she knows that the movie belonged to her. She stated that she is proud to be associated with a film on this subject. The actress explained that she listens to her heart and mind before choosing a movie. She also clarified that her film choices would be lead by “my creative juices and not box office and commercial viability”.
After the movie was wrapped up, Deepika revealed that she had to burn off the prosthetics that gave her look of an acid attack survivor to disassociate herself from the character and seek mental healing.
Director Meghna Gulzar also mentioned that she’s amused that how quickly Deepika imbibed the nuances of her character Malti. During the press conference conducted on December 10th 2019, Deepika got emotional while explaining how close and essential this movie is for her and that what the story of an acid attack survivor meant to her. “I think the impact that the film is supposed to have on all of us and the reason why we did this movie, I hope you see in it what we saw,” she said.
Chhapaak will mark Deepika’s first movie after getting married to Ranveer Singh last year. The actress is not only acting in the film but also co-producing it along with Fox Star Studios. The film is to hit the screen on January 10th, 2020. The Ajay Devgn starrer Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior is all set to release on the same day. Deepika Padukone will also star in Ranveer’s ’83 that is to release in April 2020.