Deepika Padukone: Was instantly drawn to Gulzar saab's lines

Meghna Gulzar and Deepika Padukone

Compelling and sensitive as her stories are, it is not surprising that director Meghna Gulzar turns to father Gulzar to do justice to them with his songs. For Chhapaak, the legendary lyricist-writer penned a special poem, Ab ladna hai. The promotional video shows Deepika Padukone giving voice to Gulzar's inspirational words as she calls on society to bring about a change in its mindset.

Meghna, who brings the journey of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal to life, believes that Chhapaak is as much a story of human courage as it is about changing our attitude towards survivors. "Ab ladna hai is a poem written by my father specially for the campaign. Chhapaak highlights that a lot needs to change [with regard to] acid attack survivors and their place in our society. And that change can start from an individual level. Any kind of transformation begins with a small step."

Gulzar

Though the subject of Chhapaak does not allow too much room for songs, she is happy to collaborate with her father again. "We have three songs in the album. But we thought it would be nice to communicate the core emotion with a poem written by Gulzar saab." Padukone is proud to have breathed life into Gulzar's words. "I was instantly drawn to the lines that Gulzar saab had written. The lines were so powerful that I had to be part of this creative piece."

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