Did Deepika Padukone’s ‘Chhapaak’ really change attacker’s religion? Fact Check
দীপিকা পাড়ুকোনের ‘ছপক’ কি সত্যিই আক্রমণকারীর ধর্ম পরিবর্তন করে দিয়েছে?

January 09: After Deepika Padukone attended a protest in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Tuesday, her forthcoming film “Chhapaak” seemed to be engulfed in a social media controversy on the issue of changing the religious affiliation of the film’s villain. #BoycottChhapaak remains among the top trends on Twitter and people are trolling Deepika as to why the name of the real-life villain Nadeem Khan (aka Guddu) who threw acid on Laxmi Agarwal was changed in biopic Chhapaak to a Hindu-sounding Rajesh Sharma. Chhapaak is supposed to be the story of Laxmi Agarwal, the acid attack survivor.

Deepika Padukone’s Chhapaak, which will be released on 10 January, has been inspired by the life of acid attack survivor Laxmi Aggarwal, who was attacked by 32-year-old Naeem Khan in 2005 in Delhi. Based on an IMDB link which identifies the screen name of one cast members as ‘Rajesh’, right wing magazine Swarajya published an article claiming, “the accused is said to have been named ‘Rajesh’ in Deepika’s movie.”

On January 9, News18 added a new ‘twist’ to the story based on a tweet by advocate Ishkaran Singh Bhandari. The media outlet claimed that the makers of the film ‘rectified their error’ and changed the name of the villain after social media criticism.

Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Babul Supriyo jumped into the controversy, saying it was another example of “absolute hypocrisy”. South Delhi BJP MP Ramesh Biduri also called for a boycott of the movie. Opindia’s Nupur Sharma tweeted, “If secularism means changing “Nadeem” to “Rajesh”, set secularism on fire.” Advocate Ishkaran Singh Bhandari tweeted, “If a different name is used & especially a name typically used by different religions will send a Legal Notice.” Referring to Bhadari’s tweet, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy wrote, “…if they have changed name of accused from Muslim in real life to a Hindu name. That is defamation.”

Alt News contacted Newslaundry co-founder Abhinandan Sekhri who had attended the screening of ‘Chhapaak’ in Delhi. “I watched the special screening of the movie which was organised for acid attack survivors, and the claim on social media that the accused is portrayed as belonging to the Hindu community is false. The person who is convicted is presented as belonging to the Muslim community, and so are his relatives, with one of them shown in a Burkha,” he said. Sekhri also called-out Swarajya’s erroneous report on Twitter.

Shocking (or maybe not) that such demonstrable misinformation is carried. I watched the screening last night & can tell you with certainty the religion of attacker has not changed. Film has remained accurate to the case. Opinidia ko bachane ke chakkar mein khud Opindia ban gaye.. https://t.co/Jxc0ZCEDzJ

— Abhinandan Sekhri (@AbhinandanSekhr) January 8, 2020

In the film based on the life of Laxmi, the narrative remains the same but the names have been changed. So, Laxmi is ‘Malti’ Agarwal and Nadeem becomes ‘Babboo’ aka ‘Bashir Khan’ whereas and ‘Rajesh’ is Deepika’s character’s boyfriend in the film as claimed in a report by PTI.

Finally, on the basis of all these tweets, AltNews wrote, “‘Chhapaak’ is set to release on January 10, 2020, and the claim that movie whitewashes the Muslim identity of the attacker who threw acid on Laxmi Aggarwal, by portraying him as a Hindu, was found to be false.” Moreover, if still confusion persists among people, then they can clarify all doubts by watching the 1st day 1st show of Chhapaak on 10 January, 2020.