New Chhapaak video shows how Deepika Padukone got into the skin of Malti, met Laxmi Agarwal for first time in prosthetics

A new video about Chhapaak shows how actor Deepika Padukone worked with the prosthetics team to achieve the right look for the film.

Actor Deepika Padukone has shared a new video that chronicles her journey with the prosthetics team of Chhapaak. From sitting for a moulding session to meeting Laxmi Agarwal in full makeup for the first time, the video shows how Deepika fared through it all.

The video begins with Laxmi arriving on the film’s sets and seeing Deepika with acid-burn prosthetics on her face. They share a warm hug and Laxmi says she feels good about meeting Deepika and seeing ‘two Laxmi’s together.’

Meghna Gulzar, the director of the film, then talks about how she and her writing partner Atika Chohan both wanted Deepika as the film’s lead but couldn’t ‘vocalise it’ as it felt too far-fetched. But Deepika says Meghna’s honesty is what convinced her to do the film.

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Meghna presents pictures to show how Deepika and Laxmi have a ‘very, very striking physical resemblance’ to each other. But Meghna told their prosthetic designer that she doesn’t want Deepika to look like Laxmi but like herself if she had been attacked with acid.

To get started, Deepika had to get a mould made of her face. Her face was wrapped in plaster and at one point, neither her nose, nor her mouth were left open. Deepika confesses in the video that she feels claustrophobic and asks the person in charge to remove it after a while. Watch the full video here:

Meghna says Deepika’s character had as many as nine looks in the film, which changed after surgeries as her wounds healed. She says only the eyes were Deepika’s own, which she put to full use to express herself. “She uses her eyes beautifully,” Meghna says in the video.

The movie also stars Vikrant Massey in a pivotal role. Chhapaak released last Friday and has made ₹28 crore over the week.