Mumbai: Swara Bhasker has addressed the backlash over her recent remarks on the Jauhar scene in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat.
Clarifying her comments, the actor said her words were “completely mistranslated” and stressed that she never called Rani Padmavati or the women who performed Jauhar “cowards”.
Swara had criticised the Jauhar scene during a talk at the India International Centre in Delhi, questioning whether films should portray a woman’s “purity” as being more valuable than her life, particularly in a society grappling with widespread sexual violence.
The actor said the sequence made her think about how a rape survivor might feel after watching it and argued that surviving sexual assault should never be portrayed as something shameful.
Her comments sparked criticism on social media, with several people accusing her of describing Rani Padmavati and the women who performed Jauhar as cowards.
Swara has now rejected that interpretation, explaining that she was referring to how she herself might feel if she were a rape survivor, rather than calling the women depicted in the film cowards.
Swara took to Instagram on Tuesday to clarify her remarks about Padmaavat’s Jauhar scene.
“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 said.
She added, “Main clearly kehna chahti hoon, maine aisa bilkul nahi kaha ki Rani Padmaavati kayar thi ya mahal ki baaki aurtein 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 apni 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 her remarks stemmed from her concerns over the prevalence of sexual violence in society, which she described as an “epidemic”.
She argued that the country continues to grapple with a deeply entrenched rape culture and referred to a recent horrific gang-rape case in Delhi, in which a girl was allegedly assaulted for 36 kilometres inside a moving 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 zyada mulyawaan tha? Kya hume rape peedita ko yeh bataana 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 also referred to the Nirbhaya case, saying the young woman’s courage and determination to survive should never be forgotten. Swara noted that Nirbhaya fought for her life until her final moments and stressed that a woman’s will to live should never be underestimated.
During the event, Swara had spoken at length about the Jauhar sequence in Padmaavat, explaining why she found it problematic.
“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 had said.
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.”
Swara’s remarks drew criticism from several quarters, with many questioning her interpretation of the Jauhar sequence.
Critics argued that Jauhar should not be characterised as an act of cowardice, but viewed in the historical context as an act of resistance and bravery by women facing the threat of violence and captivity during invasions.
