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.”
The heart-wrenching story of the survivors did take its emotional toll, especially on Padukone. “She has to erase the memory of her face for an entire day,” says Meghna. “[She knows] that she will get her face back, but the survivors will not.” During the promotional events, Padukone broke into tears when she spoke about how she needed to burn the prosthetic (designed by Clover Wootton) after the shoot.
Although Agarwal is the “anchor for the film”, it also tells the stories of other survivors, some of whom work at Sheroes Hangout Cafe in Delhi. Four of the survivors feature in the film. “I think, medically, their treatments are complete and they run the cafe to make a living, but, from what I understand, what is important is a more comprehensive inclusion of these girls,” says Meghna. The unbeatable spirit of the girls was a pleasant surprise to her. “We, as a society, think that their lives are ruined and that they are ‘living corpses’. They are not. They are vibrant and full of life. They are not afraid to walk with their faces revealed. It is we who feel awkward. For me, that was the biggest takeaway. On set, these girls would be laughing and joking with the crew, completely at ease.”
Metamorphosis: Deepika Padukone as an acid attack survivor in Chhapaak.
The daughter of poet-lyricist-filmmaker Gulzar and actor Rakhee, Meghna made her directorial debut with Filhaal (2002), a film about surrogacy that flopped at the box office. So did her second, Just Married (2007). Then came Talvar eight years later. Since then, there has been no looking back. So what changed? “A film worked. That changed,” she says with a smile.
Three years before Talvar, Meghna had her son and took a break from filmmaking to be a hands-on mother. But once he was old enough, her father and his protege, director Vishal Bharadwaj, convinced her to return. How long are you going to hide behind your son, they asked her. Bharadwaj came up with the idea for Talvar and wrote its script. Meghna felt she could not miss such a fabulous opportunity, especially as it allowed her to change genres. “I could go from [making] soft and sensitive fictional films to this hard, true-life murder story,” she says.
Meghna’s recent films have all been based on real-life. Chhapaak, she feels, is even more real than her previous ones. It is not based on a historical incident like Raazi or a crime story like Talvar. It is contemporary and that makes it more difficult. “The [survivors] are alive and kicking,” she says. “You cannot do anything that offends or disrespects them, or betrays their faith. And yet, you need to raise it slightly from pure reality because that is the journey you make from a newspaper article to a film.”
When Gulzar got a copy of Calling Sehmat, the book on which Raazi is based, he thought it was just another espionage story. But Meghna saw more to it and resolved to show him. She did, of course. This time around, her father, who writes the song lyrics for all her films, has not seen the finished script. “But I always give him the first draft of my script,” she says. “Then he signs on it. He will comment, put exclamation [marks] on the parts he really likes and add end notes. This one had one line: ‘It is brutally to the point’.” Her mother only sees the finished film. This time, Meghna had to ask her to watch the trailer. Although she invites her parents’ suggestions, she will not be bound by them, says Meghna. Because their sensibilities and world view are different. “My father is from a different time,” she says. “His perspectives differ from mine. He may disagree with what I am trying to express. But it is my expression, and it needs to remain mine.”
One of her biggest fortés is creating male characters who are strong and supportive. “Women are what it takes to create those characters,” she quips, adding that because such men are so rare, we need to have more of them in our scripts. She herself has one such man in her life. Her husband, Govind Sandhu, is all love, she says with a laugh.
Sandhu, along with Meghna, Padukone and Fox Star Studios, has co-produced Chhapaak. He provided strong support to the team, even rustling up home-cooked meals during the shoot. “I think that is where it comes from,” says Meghna, about her nuanced male characters. So far, says Meghna, the response to the trailer has been overwhelming. “It is heartening that there is acceptance for a story like this,” she says. The film, too, she hopes, will be embraced in a like manner upon its release.