SWARA BHASKAR has slipped into the role of a mother with as much ease as a raunchy singer, says MANSI BHANSAlI
I think I don’t have a sense of self-reservation and I don’t have as much to lose. May be if I have crores of rupees and endorsements to lose, maybe I wouldn’t be much frank. But I do feel as an artist how can you live with silence,” says Swara Bhaskar casually. Much like the characters, Bhaskar plays in her movies, she is known to speak her mind on a variety of issues.
Bhaskar, the daughter of naval officer Chitrapu Uday Bhaskar, was born and raised in Delhi. She completed her bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Delhi and enrolled herself at the Jawaharlal Nehru University to complete her master’s in Sociology, where mother Ira Bhaskar was a professor of cinema studies. Bhaskar made her film debut with a supporting role in the 2009 drama Madholal Keep Walking, a commercial failure.
Unlike most of Bollywood which believes in being politically correct, Bhaskar is straight forward and has often taken a stand on different issues, especially the ones related to women. Her films, Nil Battey Sannata andAnarkali of Arah hold out a strong social messages, which she believes in.
While Anarkali has done the rounds of several film festivals and been released commercially, it was screened yet again at Jagran Film Festival at Siri Fort where it saw packed houses. The movie directed by Avinash Das has Bhaskar in the lead where she plays a loud-mouthed singer of raunchy and double-meaning songs. The Delhi girl spoke about her experience of working with the director and how the story is relevant to her and the society.
When asked about who inspires her most in the Bollywood, Bhaskar without missing a beat answered Shahrukh Khan. And she elucidated the reason clearly, “His is a great story, we always forget in the level of super stardom that Shahrukh really is the ultimate outsider. He came to the industry at a time when there was a certain type of ‘hero’ and he didn’t look like that type and he didn’t belong to a filmy family and yet by the sheer energy of his performances and the conviction with which he did his roles, he rose to great heights. Also, he is a talented performer.”
She added with a laugh, “He also cheats everyone easily. He has a very respectful public persona which I think is something very nice to see in a celebrity of his caliber.””
Before she did movies, Bhaskar worked for sometime in theatre as well. “I’m not a professional theatre artist. I think this a bit myth about me. I have done work with N.K. Sir (Narendra Kumar Sharma) with the theatre group, Act One. I have done some workshops with him. But I can’t claim to be an experienced theatre actor,” she says.
Pointing to the difference between theatre and film, she says, “I think theatre is an actor’s medium while films are a non-actor’s medium. When we enter the industry, we get to know that actors are the smallest unit within it. This is actually a director’s medium,” she says.
Bhaskar has no qualms in admitting, “Films in comparison to theatres are done for vanity purposes. Everyone likes their faces on 70mm.”
Bhaskar had a string of flops, five to be precise before she finally succeeded in impressing the audience with her role in Tanu Weds Manu. “Though most of my films didn’t enter the 100 crore club, but they were well received and got amazing reviews whether it is Anarkali of Arah orNil Battey Sannata. So, I consider myself very lucky as I have been accepted by audience very kindly and generously. The more experimental my films have been, the more it was accepted in comparison to the commercially formulated movies,” Bhaskar says positively.
She loves the woman-centric world of Anarkali of Arah. “It is a world that we have definitely not seen since Teesri Kasam of Raj Kapoor and in that it was a very different kind of representation. Avinash ji has done a fantastic job in terms of the way he has woven the story and this world into a narrative which is so compelling and interesting that it sends a message which is socially very important. He has created a female heroine that you have never seen before in the Hindi cinema,” says Bhaskar about her newly released movie.
Bhaskar expressed that the movie is an important milestone in her career. “For me Anarkali is an absolutely path breaking cult film and that’s why you see that it’s been talked about even now. Also, The Washington Times has done a post on it and the national public radio in the USA has done an entire piece on the movie.” She said it wasn’t difficult for her to get into the skin of the character. “Though it seems tough but I didn’t feel the same because of my level of belief in this character, in her story and what she stands for. So, all the hard-work seems painless,” she said.
Women’s empowerment is an issue close to her heart. She believes there is progress and also status quo at the same time. “You can’t make a generalisation. I think there are examples on both sides. There are things that make us really sad and yet there are stories that make us really proud. Recently, there was a police inspector who stood up to MlAs and she was transferred. She said I was just doing my job. I think that was something tremendous. As far as women rights are concerned then ‘no one will distribute you as prasad’, you have to fight for it. Sometimes they have to fight with the person they love most,” says Bhaskar.
Bhaskar has come out openly in support and in opposition of several issues in the political arena. With a devil-may-care expression attitude she says, “I don’t want to comment on other celebrities because that is not my call. How we treat our celebs who take a stand or express views in opposition to what we holdIJ We either physically or verbally attack them or we disrupt their shootings. So I don’t think we as a society respect people’s opinion or the freedom of expression. We should respect artists who are the most vulnerable people because their faces are easily recognised by one and all. We should not expect artists to be super heroes.”