Deepika Padukone Says Her Depression Spiralled Again During Chhapaak, Had A Counsellor On Sets

Deepika Padukone is set to play an acid attack survivor on screen in Meghna Gulzar's Chhapaak. She has described this as her most difficult movie till date, and even broke down during its trailer launch. Deepika recently admitted that her depression spiralled during the whole process of Chhapaak.

In an interview with Rajeev Masand, Deepika opened up about the emotional turmoil she went through during Chhapaak. "I needed to have my counsellor on the sets of the movie with me. It came out of my nowhere and I was also caught off-guard. I started feeling it coming on and I thought maybe I am just tired or it is the long hours. But then it got really bad and I started feeling claustrophobic. It was very tough for me emotionally. To think about those days and put myself emotionally through that...," she said.

Deepika is an advocate for mental health, supporting and reaching out to people battling mental illness through her NGO, 'Live, Love, Laugh Foundation'. She attempted to break the stigma of mental health when she became one of the first celebrities to publicly talk about her own battle with depression, back in 2015.

Chhapaak, is inspired by the real life story of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal, which is a story of triumph, as director Meghna Gulzar has repeatedly said. For the lead role, she wanted a face associated with beauty to be distorted.

Deepika had to undergo intense prosthetics sessions for 42 days. She has said that this was the toughest part of the movie.

In the interview with Masand, she continued, "Initially it was very technical and there were no emotions involved. As soon as we decided we are going to do this movie, we had to immediately start on prosthetics because I was getting married and would be unavailable. We had to go through a bunch of look tests. I was going through the emotions but it became a reality when we did the final look test. That's the day the face came on and I told Meghna that I feel just like myself. She said that is the movie."

"Since prep started before the wedding, it allowed me to live me with all that work we had done before. Even through the wedding, it was at the back of my head; I was gearing towards it. The look test stayed with me. I chose to do it that way as I wanted to live with it. It was the emotional prep, the physical prep is easy," she added.

Chhapaak stars Vikrant Massey opposite Deepika. It releases on January 10, 2020.

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