New Delhi:
Eight years in the past, Swara Bhaskar had written an open letter to Sanjay Leela Bhansali over the glorification of jauhar and sati within the Deepika Padukone-led movie Padmaavat. At a current occasion in Delhi, she revisited the open letter and defined what had made her so “mad”, stating that the illustration of hundreds of ladies committing jauhar to guard their “honour” might make rape survivors seem like “cowards” immediately for selecting to stay.
Her newest comment has invited widespread backlash.
Web Reactions
One person wrote, “Madam #SwaraBhaskar, jauhar was not some impulsive response to a single incident of rape. It was rooted within the worry of seize, enslavement, sexual violence and the lack of dignity after defeat. And please do not presume to talk for rape survivors or resolve for them what’s ‘worse’ – rape or demise. That’s an intensely private trauma, not an ethical calculation you get to make on their behalf.”
Madam #SwaraBhaskar,
Jauhar was not some impulsive response to a single incident of rape. It was rooted within the worry of seize, enslavement, sexual violence and the lack of dignity after defeat.
And please do not presume to talk for rape survivors or resolve for them what’s… https://t.co/kxSgqunCNy
— She (@UnborrowedPen) September 1, 2026
One other particular person defended the actress, stating, “Do not know why @ReallySwara is getting a lot hate right here, not simply from the same old RW trolls but in addition from many liberals. Folks want to grasp what she is definitely saying. She is not calling the ladies who dedicated jauhar cowards. We will speak about them with empathy and nonetheless acknowledge that they have been conditioned to imagine their honour was extra essential than their lives, and that was deeply problematic. Swara is criticising the message that scene within the movie was conveying. The movie glorified and glamourised jauhar, and that is what she and many people discover disturbing.”
Do not know why @ReallySwara is getting a lot hate right here, not simply from the same old RW trolls but in addition from many liberals. Folks want to grasp what she is definitely saying. She is not calling the ladies who dedicated Jauhar cowards. We will speak about them with empathy and nonetheless… https://t.co/xq3VMz8NbN
— pranav pradhi (@pranavpradhi1) September 1, 2026
One other person commented, “Jauhar was and stays an act of utmost bravery within the face of unimaginable brutality.
Swara is utilizing a false equivalence of rape to check a medieval barbarity and atrocity. Displaying gorgeous ignorance she says that she is arguing that why shall a pregnant ladies commit jauhar simply to guard her foetus. What a wilful mental blindness.”
Jauhar was and stays an act of utmost bravery within the face of unimaginable brutality.
Swara is utilizing a false equivalence of rape to check a medieval barbarity and atrocity.
Displaying gorgeous ignorance she says that she is arguing that why shall a pregnant ladies commit jauhar… https://t.co/xTv6Ef0lU5— amit kilhor (@amitkilhor) September 1, 2026
Podcaster Richa Anirudh added, “When intelligence, understanding, and sensitivity diminish… one ought to communicate even much less. #SwaraBhaskar”
बुद्धि,समझ,संवेदनशीलता कम हो…
तो बोलना भी कम ही चाहिए 🙏 #SwaraBhaskar— richa anirudh (@richaanirudh) September 1, 2026
One other response learn, “Swara Bhaskar calling the act of jauhar a cowardly act. Swara is a coward; those that dedicated jauhar have been the bravest ladies ever born on the face of this planet. One pinch of our historical past is sufficient to destroy the fakery of such ‘activists’.”
Swara Bhasker calling the act of “Jauhar” a cowardly act. Swara is a coward, those that dedicated Jauhar have been the bravest ladies ever born on the face of this planet. One pinch of our historical past is sufficient to destroy the fakery of such “activists”. https://t.co/ky9dkRi3TF
— Prof. Abhishek Anand (@abhishekanandji) September 1, 2026
What Did Swara Bhaskar Say?
In a video going viral on social media from a current Delhi occasion, Swara Bhasker is heard saying, “I am watching this and it exhibits all these 800 ladies committing jauhar which is the story. Watching it I used to be considering that ‘God forbid, I used to be a rape survivor, what is that this movie telling me? I might really feel like a coward. That I did not kill myself to save lots of my ‘honour’.”
Moreover she added, “Is that what you need to inform ladies in a society like ours the place I really feel like there’s any method a rape epidemic. Is that what we need to inform our survivors that you do not need to stay? That in case you had truly been courageous and honourable ladies, you’ll have killed your self? Are we saying that rape is the top of a girl’s life?”
Swara Bhasker mentioned Padmaavat had many issues that have been “simply so problematic”.
“There was like one shot that made me so mad. I used to be like, ‘Chhee!’ There’s a close-up of a pregnant lady’s stomach and he or she’s going… So, you are saying {that a} foetus that could be feminine does not need to be born as a result of she could be raped by a Muslim ruler? I used to be so mad after which I got here out and I used to be like, ‘That is horrible’,” she recounted.
She mentioned she waited for 5 days earlier than penning down the open letter that was printed on the web site The Wire.
“Usually individuals suppose I do these items (expressing an opinion) in a rage however I waited for 5 days. I used to be like ‘Let me verify if I nonetheless really feel like this. On the finish of 5 days I wrote this letter,” she added.
Within the 2018 letter, Swara Bhasker wrote that she “felt diminished to a vagina” after watching Padmaavat.
She additionally referred to as out Bhansali for glorifying acts – jauhar and sati. “Girls have the precise to stay regardless of being raped, sir. Girls have the precise to stay, regardless of the demise of their husbands, male ‘protectors’, ‘homeowners’, ‘controllers of their sexuality’… no matter you perceive the lads to be,” she had written in her letter.
About Padmaavat
Padmaavat is predicated on Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s ballad of the identical identify, which narrates the story of Rani Padmini of Chittor. “Padmaavat” options Deepika Padukone as Padmavati, who performs jauhar together with a whole bunch of Rajput ladies, after Alauddin Khilji breeches the fort of Chittor.
Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the movie was led by Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor.
ALSO READ | “Is Rape End Of A Woman’s Life?” Swara Bhasker Revisits Padmaavat Open Letter On Jauhar To Bhansali
