Bollywood actor Swara Bhaskar's remarks on movie Padmaavat and its climax scene showing women committing Jauhar have drawn the ire of political figures, several calling for her to respect the choice of other women.
The actor said while speaking at ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ talk at the India International Centre in Delhi on Monday that she found the climax scene of the movie, which was released in 2018, “problematic”.
Reacting to the remark, which is facing backlash across social media, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said the scene depicted choice of women which can be debated and that people should just “deal with it”.
Deep Dive
What does Swara Bhasker criticize about the Jauhar scene in Padmaavat?
Why did Priyanka Chaturvedi defend the Jauhar scene in her response to Swara Bhasker?
How did Swara Bhasker clarify her comments on the interpretation of the Jauhar scene?
“If the choice was between death or becoming a sex slave for conquerors and a concubine in their harems, several women chose former. Some women may choose latter. However, they used their agency- whether one agrees or disagrees with can be debated but it was a choice. A choice that a woman made. Deal with it,” Chaturvedi said.
She added that she found that Jauhar scene “perhaps one of the most powerful part of the movie Padmavat”.
“The women didn’t want to be reduced to their v*gina which the invaders would have got them to do for their entire lived existence, so they made a hard choice life dealt them with,” she wrote on X.
The scene depicts women, led by queen Padmavati played by actor Deepika Padukone, committing Jauhar to avoid Sultan Allaudin Khilji, played by Ranveer Kapoor, and his army getting to them after a war.
Bharatiya Janata Party also reacted to Bhaskar's comments, saying that it was important that a woman “respects” other women.
Also read: Exclusive| Padmaavat writer Prakash Kapadia: Jauhar was the reality of those times
Taking a jibe at Swara Bhaskar, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said, "You have taken the name of such an individual whose 'swar' (tone) has gone bad. It is said that her "swar" (tone) also matches with what is instructed to her. I understand that such kind of comments should not be made. It's necessary that a woman should respect other women", reported PTI.
What Swara Bhaskar said and her clarification
At the event on Monday, Swara made a controversial remark about the Jauhar scene in Padmaavat and said that it made her feel like if she was a rape survivor, she would be “coward” for not “committing suicide” to save her honour. A clip of her remarks is viral on social media.
“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.
Later on Tuesday, she clarified and said that her remarks are being “mistranslated and spread falsely”.
“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,” she said.
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.