December 24, 2019: A writer has approached the Bombay High Court against Deepika Padukone-starrer Chhapaak, claiming he originally penned an acid attack survivor's story on which the film is based. The petitioner, Rakesh Bharti, has sought that he should be given credit as one of the writers of the script.

'Chhapaak' is based on the real-life story of acid attack survivor Laxmi, who at the age of 15, was attacked allegedly by a spurned lover in 2005. The film, which also marks Deepika's production debut in Bollywood,is set to hit theatres on January 10, 2020.

Bharti claimed that after conceptualising the idea for the movie, he had approached several artistes, but the film's production could not be started.

"Plantiff had been approaching different artistes from time to time and accordingly have narrated the story to those artistes and producers for the purpose of taking the services", mentions the petition.

"Though initially, all those artistes showed their interest to work in the film, however, for one reason or the other, they kept on delaying the confirmation, with the result, the plantiff could not start the production of the said film along with his son", it added.