Earlier in September, Swara Bhaskar found herself at the centre of controversy after speaking about Deepika Padukone's jauhar scene in Padmaavat. The actor called the sequence problematic, leading to backlash. Swara Bhaskar is all set to enter the reality show Rise & Fall 2 now, and she has once again spoken about the backlash she received over her jauhar remarks, calling it a "constructed controversy".
Swara Bhaskar told SCREEN, "I don't understand. This is a 9- or 10-year-old controversy. I have already got the same gaalis for it in 2018 when that open letter came out. Now I'm only answering a question about what the open letter was for, which I have already been abused for, and the controversy is done and dusted. Now, again, you're angry about the same thing that you were angry about 10 years ago. I don't get it. And you're not just misconstruing. You are lying about what I said."
She added, "Earlier, I thought they didn't understand English, so I said it in Hindi. I said that if I had been a rape survivor and I watched that glorification, I would feel like a coward. I'm saying 'I' would feel like a coward. Even major media channels, for God's sake, are reporting that Swara Bhaskar calls jauhar an act of cowardice or the jauhar women are cowards. Honestly, I felt that was a constructed controversy. There was an organised, very self-conscious sort of decision to keep that controversy alive."
Furthermore, Swara Bhaskar explained that the recent controversy was not the only time that her words have been amplified on a wrong note.
"I have said the same thing many times in many interviews. There are other clips of me also on the internet saying the same thing. Nothing happened at that time. So how did people get angry all of a sudden? It felt very shady. And in general, I've noticed this trend. We all know now that there are IT cells of various political parties. I really feel that all these kinds of controversies of mine, especially in recent years and the last few weeks, are all constructed and being pushed because other agendas are being conducted on the shoulders of my controversies," added the actress.
She explained that a lot of people are getting "jobs" in her name. She also called out the excessive interest in trolling her relentlessly, as is often observed.
Swara Bhaskar added, "They spent the whole day training the army, doing the same thing that is to troll Swara Bhasker. I always say to people, if your job is coming out of having my name in the headlines and lying about me, misquoting me, constantly naming me and harassing me, targeting me, then kindly send a Diwali hamper this year with a thank you note."
The actress also talked about who can be behind these "targeted attacks" aimed at her. Stating about the IT cell, who are the "strongest" and have the "most money" and are the "most powerful", she said, "It's obviously them. It takes away from all the criticism that's happening on their side right now."
What Did Swara Bhaskar Say?
In a video that went viral from a Delhi event earlier this month, Swara Bhasker was heard saying, "I'm watching this and it shows all these 800 women committing jauhar which is the story. Watching it I was thinking that 'God forbid, I was a rape survivor, what is this film telling me? I would feel like a coward. That I didn't kill myself to save my 'honour'."
Furthermore she added, "Is that what you want to tell women in a society like ours where I feel like there's any way a rape epidemic. Is that what we want to tell our survivors that you don't deserve to live? That if you had actually been brave and honourable women, you would have killed yourself? Are we saying that rape is the end of a woman's life?"
Swara Bhasker said Padmaavat had many things that were "just so problematic".
"There was like one shot that made me so mad. I was like, 'Chhee!' There is a close-up of a pregnant woman's belly and she's going... So, you're saying that a foetus that might be female doesn't deserve to be born because she might be raped by a Muslim ruler? I was so mad and then I came out and I was like, 'This is terrible'," she recounted.
She said she waited for five days before penning down the open letter that was published on the website The Wire.
"Normally people think I do these things (expressing an opinion) in a rage but I waited for five days. I was like 'Let me check if I still feel like this. At the end of five days I wrote this letter," she added.
In the 2018 letter, Swara Bhasker wrote that she "felt reduced to a vagina" after watching Padmaavat.
She also called out Bhansali for glorifying acts - jauhar and sati. "Women have the right to live despite being raped, sir. Women have the right to live, despite the death of their husbands, male 'protectors', 'owners', 'controllers of their sexuality'... whatever you understand the men to be," she had written in her letter.
About Padmaavat
Padmaavat is based on Malik Muhammad Jayasi's ballad of the same name, which narrates the story of Rani Padmini of Chittor. "Padmaavat" features Deepika Padukone as Padmavati, who performs jauhar along with hundreds of Rajput women, after Alauddin Khilji breeches the fort of Chittor.
Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the film was led by Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor.
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