Mumbai: Actor Deepika Padukone’s new film, Chhapaak, is making a splash in multifarious ways before its release on January 10. It all began when she stopped by the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, on Tuesday, mixing her human rights sensibilities with duty – she was in the capital to promote her film, directed by Meghna Gulzar.
This move so angered the troll brigade that it promptly set up #boycottchhapaak. In what must surely be a first, they threatened to cancel their tickets for the movie, booked in advance.
But strangely, every outraged tweet shared screenshots of the same three tickets, in the prized ‘A’ row – with the seat numbers A10, A9 and A8, for the same 6.50pm show at Cinemarc.
The tweets too were similarly worded, making it seem like a copy-paste job. To top it all, the refund amount came out to Rs 420 and the implication was not lost.
But another section came out in her support and tweeted that it will watch the new movie based on a real-life story of an acid-attack victim. #HumDekhengeChhapaak and #IsupportDeepika trended with people praising the actress for her spunk.
A host of Bollywood personalities came out in support of the actress. Sonakshi Sinha tweeted: No matter which political party you support, do you support violence? Don't visuals of bleeding students and teachers shake you up? We can't sit on the fence any longer.
Kudos to @deepikapadukone for showing up, & all those who spoke for speaking up. This is not the time to stay quiet.
Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap tweeted: "#HumDekhengeChhapaak. First day first show." He also said the female of the species is, and was, and will always be the stronger of the two. Make our silent statement which will be the loudest.
But there were others like controversial BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj who used unusually strong words against her, calling Padukone part of the 'tukde tukde gang'.
In an interview to IANS, the Unnao MP alleged, "I think they (people like Deepika) too are part of tukde tukde gang." The BJP leader went a step further to draw an international conspiracy theory. "Some foreign players are behind them," he alleged.
ATTACKER’S NAME CHANGED?
Deepika Padukone's "Chhapaak" is under fire, too, for allegedly changing the acid attacker's name from "Nadeem Khan" to "Rajesh". Several reports have claimed that director Meghna Gulzar was behind the switch.
Several users on Twitter expressed their disappointment over the rumoured change.
"If Bollywood makes a movie based on true events of 9/11, they'll portray Osama Bin Laden as Om Prakash Tiwari," one user posted. Another user said:
"Understand the chronology. Chhapak film is based on Laxmi Agarwal, an acid attack survivor. Nadeem Khan is the name of the person who threw acid in real life.
In the film the name is changed to Rajesh ... a Hindu name. So Deepika's visit to JNU is not surprising."One user said: "Hey @deepikapadukone what is the name of person in the movie who attacked the girl? Heard "Rajesh" instead of Nadeem
Khan. How can you stoop so low? How can you portray a Hindu name thus?"
