Meghna Gulzar: Laxmi Agarwal’s Pics Before The Attack Are Strikingly Similar To Deepika Padukone

Meghna Gulzar is one proud director as even before the release of her forthcoming film, Chhapaak, the lady is being praised hugely by netizens and B-town celebs including Aamir Khan and Alia Bhatt. In fact, Kangana Ranaut's sister, Rangoli Chandel, who herself is an acid-attack survivor, praised Deepika Padukone and Meghna for Chhapaak's trailer and wished them all the best. Chhapaak is loosely based on Delhi's acid-attack survivor, Laxmi Agarwal.

When Meghna was asked what made her rope in Deepika for Laxmi's portrayal, the Raazi director told Mumbai Mirror, "For me, it was important to take a face associated with beauty because when you distort it, like 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."

She also added that during her research, she discovered that Laxmi Agarwal's pictures before the attack were strikingly similar to Deepika Padukone's when she was young. There is an uncanny similarity in their physicality which shows up in the prosthetics and that was Meghna's starting point.

Meghna further continued, "Then came the larger thought of the impact of the message which would get magnified with her in the lead as Malti (who is fashioned after Laxmi). 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."

Chhapaak also casts Vikrant Massey in the lead, who will be seen fighting alongside Malti for justice. The movie is all set to hit the theatres on January 10, 2020.