Face value

Filmmaker Meghna Gulzar says that her upcoming film, Chhapaak, about acid attack survivors, is more real than all her previous films.

- Priyanka Bhadani

After the success of her film, Talvar (2015), based on the Aarushi Talwar murder case, Meghna Gulzar was in search of her next story. Having worked on a film based on an actual case, she wanted her next, too, to be based on real life. “You read the papers and listen to the news and the chatter on social media,” she says. “I came across these [acid attack] incidents being reported pretty frequently. But there was not much in the public consciousness about them. I dug a little deeper into the issue.” Thus was born the idea for Chhapaak, starring Deepika Padukone as Malti. Padukone’s character was inspired by the life of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal. “The minute you look for acid violence, you come across Laxmi, because hers is the most landmark case on this subject,” says Meghna.

Agarwal was 15 when she was attacked with acid by three men in Delhi, one of whom she had refused to marry. She filed a PIL in 2006 in the Supreme Court asking for a ban on acid sales. “I could see the number of acid attacks that happened in India in a year,” says Meghna. “Despite the consequences for the victims, their families and society at large, it was not being spoken about.... I really felt that there was a strong story there that should be told.” In 2016, she collaborated with writer Atika Chohan to flesh out the story, after meeting Agarwal and a few other survivors working with the NGO, Chhanv Foundation.

But before that, her film Raazi happened. She was also signed on for a film on the 1971 war hero Sam Manekshaw, which eventually got delayed. “In the meanwhile, I thought I would try and do this,” she says. “That is when I went to meet Deepika. She instantly agreed and the film came to life.”