Bollywood actor Swara Bhasker recently faced backlash for her remarks about the Jauhar scene in Deepika Padukone’s 2018 film Padmaavat. While speaking at the Woman, Life, Freedom talk at the India International Centre in Delhi on August 31, Swara spoke against the Jauhar scene in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film, calling it problematic. Now, the actor has shared a video clarifying her remarks, explaining that she did not call Padmaavati a “coward” and urging everyone not to spread false narratives about her speech.
Swara Bhasker says he remarks about Jauhar scene in Padmaavat have been misinterpreted
On Tuesday, Swara took to Instagram and shared a video explaining her comments about Padmaavat’s Jauhar scene. She said in Hindi, “This morning, a clip of mine has been going viral on social media. It was from an event yesterday, where I was asked why I had sent an open letter to Sanjay Leela Bhansali after watching Padmaavat. While explaining what my issue was, I said something that is now being completely mistranslated and spread falsely, claiming that I had said that Rani Padmaavati and the other women who committed Jauhar were cowards.”
She added, “Main clearly kehna chahti hoon, maine aisa bilkul nahi kaha ki Rani Padmaavati Kayar thi yaa Mahal ki baaki aurtien Kayar thi Jo log mujhe gaaliyan dena chahte hain, dijiye par sahi cheez pe dijiye. Maine kaha tha jab main climax dekh rahi thi, mujhe laga, bhagwan naa kare agar main rape peedita hoti toh main kayar mehsoos karti ki maine aapni jaan kyun nahi li, Ki main balatkar ke baad Zinda Bach gayi toh main kayar hoon (I want to make it absolutely clear that I did not say that Rani Padmaavati was a coward or that the other women in the palace were cowards. Those who want to abuse me, go ahead, but at least abuse me for the right thing. What I had said was that while watching the climax, I thought, God forbid, if I were a rape survivor, I would feel like a coward for not having taken my own life — that if I had survived after being raped, I would feel like a coward).”
Swara explained that she made the remark because rape has become so widespread in society that it resembles an epidemic. She argued that society lives amid a thriving rape culture, pointing to a recent horrific gang-rape incident in Delhi in which a girl was allegedly assaulted for 36 kilometres inside a vehicle. She added, “Yeh asliyat hai humare desh mein. Kya hume aisi filmein banani chahiye jahan yeh sandesh jaa raha hai ki aurat ki pavitrata uski zindagi se Jyada mulyawaan tha? Kya hume rape peedita ko yeh btaana chahiye ki tumhari jaan hi chali jaati, toh sahi rehta, tum Bach gayi toh yeh buri baat hai? (This is the reality of our country.
Should we be making films that send the message that a woman’s purity is more valuable than her life? Should we be telling a rape survivor that it would have been better if she had died, and that surviving the assault was a bad thing?).”
She further mentioned the Nirbhaya case, adding that one should never forget the brave girl who fought against her six rapists until her last breath. She said Nirbhaya had a strong will to live and added that one should never underestimate a woman’s will to live.
What did Swara Bhasker say?
Swara made a controversial remark about the Jauhar scene in Padmaavat and said, “I was watching it, and I thought that if God forbid, I was a rape survivor, what is this film telling me? I would feel like a coward that I didn’t commit suicide to save my honour. Is that what you want to tell in a society like ours where I feel like, anyway, there is a rape epidemic? Is this what we want to tell our survivors that they don’t deserve to live, that if you actually would have been an honourable and brave woman, you would have killed yourself. Are we saying that rape is the end of a woman’s life? This scene was so problematic.”
She added, “Then there was this one shot, which made me so mad that I shouted ‘chii’ loudly; there is a close-up of a pregnant woman’s belly performing jauhar. So you are telling me that fetus, which might be a female, doesn’t deserve to be born because she might be raped by a Muslim ruler. I was so mad. I waited for five days to check if I still feel like that, and after five days, I wrote a letter.”
She faced backlash for her remarks, with many criticising her interpretation of the Jauhar sequence and arguing that the historical practice should not be described as cowardice, but was an act of bravery by women against the barbarity of Muslim invaders.
Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Padmaavat is a 2018 Hindi epic period drama starring Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Sultan Alauddin Khilji.