Swara Bhasker faces flak for calling Padmaavat Jauhar scene problematic: 'Is rape the end of life?'

Deepika Padukone, Swara Bhasker (Pics/X)

Actress Swara Bhasker's comments on the Jauhar scene in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmaavat have sparked fresh controversy online. The actor questioned the message conveyed by the sequence, saying it could make rape survivors feel like cowards. Her remarks have drawn sharp criticism from netizens, who have slammed her interpretation of the historical practice.

Swara Bhasker defends her views on Padmaavat Jauhar scene

In a video going viral on social media, Swara Bhasker is heard saying, "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'."

The Tanu Weds Manu actor then goes on to ask, "Is that what you want to tell women in a society like ours where I feel like there's, anyway, a rape epidemic? Is that what we want to tell our survivors, that you don't deserve to live? That if you had actually been brave and honourable women, you would have killed yourself? Are we saying that rape is the end of a woman's life?"

Swara Bhasker said Padmaavat had many things that were "just so problematic". She also recalls shouting "chhi" loudly after the scene depicted a pregnant woman also performing Jauhar.

The debate is not new for Swara. After watching Padmaavat in 2018, she waited several days before writing an open letter to Bhansali, explaining why the Jauhar sequence had deeply troubled her.

Netizens react

Swara's latest remarks have drawn sharp criticism online. Criticising her interpretation of Jauhar, a user wrote, "Committing Jauhar instead of facing forced slavery and concubinage is highest form of bravery!" A comment read, "Does this lady even realise how Mughals kept Hindu women in captivity and treated them as sex slaves? IQ in Minus." One more comment called Swara's comment "malicious", while another described Swara's interpretation as "willful intellectual blindness".

For the unversed, in Padmaavat, the Jauhar sequence comes towards the climax after Alauddin Khilji's forces defeat the Rajputs and breach the fort of Chittor. Deepika Padukone's Rani Padmavati leads the women of the fort into Jauhar.