If there’s one celebrity in Bollywood who fiercely advocates for mental health, it’s Deepika Padukone. She spearheaded the movement to make people aware of mood disorders. DP herself opened up about battling depression in 2015. Later, she even said that it was cathartic and extremely liberating to be talking about it in the open.
Now, talking about a relapse, DP said that shooting for Chhapaak took her down a low spiral. She described it as the most difficult movie and even broke down at the film’s trailer launch as she spoke about the film. She plays an acid attack survivor based on the real-life acid-attack survivor, Laxmi Agarwal.
In an interview with a leading daily, DP said, “I needed to have my counsellor on the sets of the movie with me. It came out of 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.”
The Piku actor even added that she had started preparing for the role before her wedding to Ranveer Singh. She had done a look test before going on a break for the D-day. “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 motions 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,” she added.
She was probably making a reference to a dialogue in the film that says “Unhone meri surat badli hai mera mann nahi.”
Talking about filming and the wedding, Deepika said that she was getting ready for Chhapaak even during her wedding.
“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”, said the Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani actor.
The trailer looks promising, as does DP’s acting and Gulzar’s direction and we’re sure it’s going to hit a nerve. More power to Deepika for not shying away from difficult conversations and speaking her truth. 🙌
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