Actress Swara Bhasker has once again found herself in the spotlight over her remarks on the jauhar sequence in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2018 film “Padmaavat”. Speaking at the “Women, Life, Freedom” event, Swara had described the scene as problematic and expressed her views on it. She subsequently faced criticism on social media. The actress has now shared a video clarifying her comments, saying that her statement was mistranslated and taken out of context to claim that she had called Rani Padmavati and the women who committed jauhar “cowards”.

Swara said she had not said anything of the sort. According to the actress, she was viewing the film’s climax from a different context, and her question was whether a woman who becomes a victim of rape should be made to feel that surviving is a matter of shame. She said her comments were not intended to describe the women who committed jauhar as cowards. She also pointed out that rape has become a serious and widespread problem in society and argued that, in such an environment, the messages conveyed by films should also be questioned. Swara questioned whether a woman’s “purity” should be considered more important than her life and whether a rape survivor should ever be made to feel that surviving was wrong.

In the context of her remarks, the actress also recalled the courage of Nirbhaya and said that women’s will to live and their struggle for survival should not be undermined. Following Swara’s original comments, several people had objected to her interpretation of jauhar. Critics argued that jauhar should not be viewed as an act of cowardice, but rather in the context of the courage of women of that era and the circumstances they faced. It may be recalled that in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Padmaavat”, Deepika Padukone portrayed Rani Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor played Maharawal Ratan Singh, and Ranveer Singh essayed the role of Alauddin Khilji.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar