With boycott calls, Deepika's 'Chhapaak' headed 'Padmaavat' way?

Deepika Padukone's silent show of solidarity with the students of JNU on Tuesday night has the political world and Bollywood taking sides. And in no time, hashtags #BoycottChappak and #IsupportDeepika started trending on Twitter. Though she did not say anything, visuals of a stoic Deepika, standing by student leaders and meeting JNUSU leader Aishe Ghosh has gone viral.

Deepika's stand comes in the midst of deafening silence on the protests from most Bollywood biggies whom fans look upto as role models. Earlier, on Monday night, a slew of Bollywood celebrities such as directors Vishal Bhardwaj, Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and actors Taapsee Pannu and Richa Chadha turned up at Carter Road in Mumbai in solidarity with those protesting against the violence at the JNU. However, Deepika appears to be the first Bollywood A lister who have reached out to the students in the campus to express solidarity, and that is what makes this important.

Social media war

With opposing views, both political leaders and celebs have taken to Twitter to dissect the situation. It also triggered an online debate on whether Deepika's presence was a mere PR stunt to promote her much-anticipated film Chhapaak, which releases Friday. In the film, directed by Meghna Gulzar, she plays an acid attack survivor.

On the other hand, many are taking to Twitter to share screenshots of their cancelled bookings for Chhapaak. Openly calling for a boycott, BJP spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga tweeted her photo at JNU. Her Chhapaak co-star Vikrant Massey took to Twitter to praise her move and wrote that his heart 'swells with pride'. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap changed his Twitter profile picture to that of Deepika at JNU.

Speaking to ANI social media campaign to boycott Deepika Padukone's movi , DMK MP Kanimozhi said: I don't watch many Hindi movies, they're actually making people like me go & watch her movies & support her.

Chhapaak is inspired from the real life story of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal. Right wing users also trolled director Meghna Gulzar for changing the 'religion' of the attacker to Hindu in the film, while in reality, he was a Muslim.

Chhapaak and Padmaavat

Deepika is not new to social media hatred and boycott campaigns. In 2018, her film Padmaavat faced massive boycott call from right wing groups. Starring Deepika, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor, the film was based on 16th century poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi's poem Padmaavat. It was caught in a row after protests from Shri Rajput Karni Sena which said that it distorts historical facts and dents the pride of the Rajput community. From changing the name of the film from Padmavati to Padmaavat, and pushing through a huge legal battle, the film's team put up with a level of protest unheard of till then. According to reports, she even faced death threats over the film.

With Chhapaak, the stakes are higher for Deepika as she also turned producer for the first time for the film.