Swara Bhasker Alleges Her Padmaavat Controversy Was Purely 'Constructed'

Swara Bhasker didn't hold back as she hit out at a fabricated controversy around her remarks on Padmaavat (2018).

In a new interview with SCREEN, Bhasker condemned the controversy as entirely orchestrated. Clarifying her version, she said, “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.”

Swara Bhasker's Padmaavat Controversy Timeline

She insisted, “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 organized, very self-conscious sort of decision to keep that controversy alive.”

Bhasker reiterated, "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".

Bhasker lashed out at the controversy is just being milked for opportunity by others. She added, “Some people are getting jobs in my name. 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.”

In a video that went viral from a Delhi event earlier this month, Swara Bhasker said, "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'." Her remarks unleashed a cavalcade of heated debate, leading to several clarifications.

In a 2018 letter, she had slammed Bhansali for valourising 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".