Deepika Padukone’s visit to the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi on 7th January to express solidarity with the students for the attack on them on 5th January by masked people because of their (students’) anti-CAA stand has become the hottest topic of discussion. India seems to have been divided between two groups — pro- and anti-Deepika. Those favouring the BJP government’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act seem to have not taken too kindly to the actress’ move. They have posted memes on social media and are demanding a boycott of Deepika’s forthcoming film, Chhapaak.
It would not be wrong to assume that the actress-producer of the film, who was in Delhi on 7th to promote her film which is due for release on 10th January, seized the opportunity and went to the JNU where she stood in silence with the students for ten minutes. Deepika was dressed in a black attire to probably underline that she did not approve of the violence on students on 5th January. An important point to be noted is that she did not utter a single word. This seems to have been carefully thought of so as not to antagonise the BJP government with her comments or statements. As it is, her marketing team, while planning the visit, must’ve warned the actress that her move to go to the JNU would not find approval of the men in power. Choosing to still go ahead with the publicity plan so as to get Chhapaak in the limelight, Deepika refrained from uttering a single word on the campus in a bid to, so to say, not add fuel to the fire.
Deepika and her director, Meghna Gulzar, seem to have taken a calculated risk. Chhapaak is not the regular commercial film like, say, Deepika Padukone’s Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani or Padmaavat. It is a film for the niche audience, the multiplex and city audience more than the large mass base. As it is pitted against Ajay Devgan’s big-budgeted Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, also due for release on 10th January, it was bound to be the second choice of the paying public, by and large. By creating a furore with her campus visit (and this kind of brouhaha was expected; it couldn’t have been anything less than this), Deepika seems to have hogged the entire limelight. In that sense, the hugely-publicised Tanhaji and the moderately-promoted Chhapaak now seem to have come on a level playing field. For, with just her ten-minute appearance, Deepika’s film seems to have got free promotion worth probably crores of rupees.
If the call for boycott by some BJP leaders and pro-BJP members of the public gains momentum in the next two days and if the public heeds the call for boycott, Deepika’s stance will have backfired very badly on the film. But if such an eventuality does not arise, there are two possibilities. Either the publicity tactic will prove beneficial to the film or it won’t. What actually happens from out of the aforementioned two possibilities will be known on Friday when the film hits the screens.
If the first day’s net collections are Rs. 8-9 crore, it will safely be concluded that the move of the producers and marketing team of Chhapaak had paid off. But if the net collection on day 1 is Rs. 3.5 to 4 crore, it would mean that the publicity (favourable as well as anti) generated out of the campus visit has not really helped the box-office of the film. For, a figure like Rs. 3.5 to 4 crore is expected from Deepika and Meghna for the kind of film Chhapaak is. Had Chhapaak been a regular commercial entertainer, the publicity move would have definitely reflected in the box-office collections from the first day. Whether the same will happen for a predominantly class-appealing film like Chhapaak is to be seen. Of course, that can be gauged only on Friday, January 10, that too, if the boycott call is ignored by the public.