Debutant director to release her movie on acid attack survivor a week before Deepika Padukone's Chhapaak
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; December 15, 2019)

The trailer of Chhapaak has piqued audience curiosity as it tackles the social menace of acid attacks on women. While the Deepika Padukone-starrer is eyeing a January 10 release, few know that another movie on a real-life acid attack survivor will hit screens a week prior. The film, titled ACID – Astounding Courage In Distress, has been helmed by debutant director-producer Priyanka Singh.

"After we wrapped up our film, we learnt that Deepika's Chhapaak is releasing a week after us. However, I felt that our story is different," says Singh, who also portrays the role of the protagonist Ruhana in the drama. Like Chhapaak that tells the story of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal, ACID is inspired by a real-life incident in Uttar Pradesh, where a young girl was attacked by her uncle. Unwilling to disclose the name of the survivor, Singh says that the idea behind the film is to increase the dialogue around the social ill.

"We have not dramatised the scenes [for effect] but shot them realistically [without building] hype around the subject. Lakshmi's character in Chhapaak has got a lot of attention, but there are many girls who have similar stories. We have also delved into the minds of people who commit such heinous crimes."

Co-producer Man Singh is unperturbed that his venture will lock horns with Chhapaak. "When we started our project in 2017, we were not aware that another film was being made on the same subject. Our film depicts the struggle women against a male-dominated society. It is not about one girl."