Swara Bhasker Defends Her Padmaavat Letter To Sanjay Leela Bhansali; Gets Massively Trolled For Calling Deepika Padukone’s Jauhar Scene ‘Cowardly’

Actress Swara Bhasker is known for speaking her mind, and courting controversy more times than not for it. She recently got the internet talking over her comments about Deepika Padukone’s character performing Jauhar scene alongside several other women and girls in Padmaavat.

During a recent event, Swara revisited the letter she wrote to Sanjay Leela Bhasali after watching his film and made a controversial statement about the Jauhar sequence shown in it. While on the panel, the actress spoke against the Jauhar scene and how it can negatively impact rape survivors. As the video continues to go viral, netizens have taken to various social media platforms and called out the actress. Read on to know all she said, and the reaction to it.

Swara Bhasker: Padmaavat’s Jauhar Scene Was Problematic

In videos going viral from the Woman Life Freedom talk at the India International Centre in Delhi, Swara Bhasker is heard calling the women who performed jauhar cowards. She also implied that such scenes could send the wrong message to rape survivors. The actress said, “I was watching it (Padmaavat), 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.”

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She continued, “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 be a honourable and brave women, you would have killed yourself? Are we saying that rape is end of a woman’s life? This scene was so problematic.”

She continued, “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.” The letter refers to the open letter she wrote to Sanjay Leela Bhansali after Padmawat’s release.

Netizens Slam Swara

Swara Bhasker’s remarks have drawn massive reactions on social media. Several users took to platforms like X and Instagram to criticise her interpretation of the Jauhar sequence and even argue that the historical practice should not be described as cowardice but as an act of bravery by women. Slamming the actress, one netizen wrote, “The message was clear that how women can save her pride, honour and dignity by not surrendering….and it’s in the history, it’s not a made up story.”

Another wrote, “Yaar.. konse period ki story hai wo? That’s all she took from the movie? How about Padmavati being smart enough to kill the pandit and take the soldiers with her! There is a story of bravery too lady.” A third wrote, “Muslim invaders use to rape the dead corpse if the women were committed sucide that’s why the chose fire what a insensitive statement from her”

A fourth comment read, “According to Bhasker, Hindu women who committed jauhar or suicide were “COWARDS” because they chose to die over the prospect of leading their lives as concubines of Muslim invaders.”

Social Media Users Troll Swara Bhasker

Another netizen – calling Jauhar an act of bravery, wrote, “Jauhar was and remains an act of utmost bravery in the face of unimaginable brutality. Swara is using a false equivalence of rape to compare a medieval barbarity and atrocity. Showing stunning ignorance she says that she is arguing that why shall a pregnant women commit jauhar just to protect her fetus. What a willful intellectual blindness.”

Slamming Swara Bhasker, another netizen tweeted, “Its such a shame that you can’t differentiate between a rape and being a sex slave. Maybe you would choose being a sex slave, but not those woman who chose death over being sex slaves to Muslim invaders. Maybe they reduced themselves to being brains, unlike you.” One more comment read, “Can she even comprehend what she is saying….how a women choosing to save her dignity rather than geting raped is labed as “COWARD”. Why are people even inviting her to spout such nonsense”

Watch the full Jauhar scene here:

About Padmaavat

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. The film also stars Aditi Rao Hydari, Jim Sarbh, Raza Murad and Anupriya Goenka. The film is based on the epic poem Padmavat by Malik Muhammad Jayasi.

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Grinell Jacinto

With nearly 10 years of experience, Grinell Esther Jacinto is the Desk Head of Bollywood Bubble. Her interests lie in everything that is kaleshi and she loves to dig deeper into the lives of B-town actors. She has a problem though – she loves horror films but will have chills the minute the theatres lights dims. She’s previously worked with Koimoi, UrbanAsian and SpotboyE.