BJP slams actor Swara Bhasker for her Padmaavat remark
The BJP on Wednesday hit out at actor Swara Bhasker for her remarks on the depiction of ‘Jauhar’ in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2018 film Padmaavat, saying a woman should respect other women.
The BJP’s response came after Bhasker criticised the depiction of ‘Jauhar’ in “Padmaavat”, questioning the message conveyed by the film’s final sequence.
“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... Are we saying that rape is the end of a woman’s life? This scene was so problematic,” she said at an event recently, which led to social media backlash.
Asked for a reaction, 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 what is instructed to her. I understand that such kind of comments should not be made. A woman must respect other women.”
Bhasker later clarified that her remarks criticising the ‘Jauhar’ scene in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2018 film “Padmaavat” were “completely mistranslated” and she never called Rani Padmavati or other women who committed Jauhar “cowards”.
The actor has been at the receiving end of social media ire over comments made during an event last week, where she said the film glorified ‘Jauhar’, the practise among some Rajput communities, in which women committed mass self-immolation to avoid capture, enslavement or sexual violence when defeat in war appeared imminent.
In a video posted on X on Tuesday night, Bhasker explained the context of her remarks.
“This morning, a clip of mine has been going viral on social media. It was from an event yesterday, where I was asked why I had sent an open letter to Sanjay Leela Bhansali after watching ‘Padmaavat’. While explaining what my issue was, I said something that is now being completely mistranslated and spread falsely, claiming that I had said that Rani Padmaavati and the other women who committed Jauhar were cowards,” she said.
“Maine kaha tha jab main climax dekh rahi thi, mujhe laga, bhagwan naa kare agar main rape peedita hoti toh main kayar mehsoos karti ki maine aapni jaan kyun nahi li, Ki main balatkar ke baad Zinda Bach gayi toh main kayar hoon (While watching the climax, I felt that, God forbid, if I were a rape survivor, the film might make me feel cowardly for not taking my own life and for having chosen to survive after the assault),” she added.
