Swara Bhasker has addressed the controversy surrounding her remarks on Padmaavat’s Jauhar scene, claiming her words were wrongly translated and insisting she never called Rani Padmavati or Jauhar performers cowards
Bollywood actress Swara Bhasker has responded to the controversy surrounding her comments on the Jauhar sequence in Padmaavat. In a video shared on social media, the actress claimed that her statement had been “wrongly” translated and was being used to create a false narrative.
Swara specifically denied calling Rani Padmavati or the women who performed Jauhar “cowards”. She said people were circulating a clip while presenting a meaning that she had never intended.
“Main clearly ye kehna chahti hoon ki maine katai aisa nahi kaha ki Rani Padmavati kayar thin,” she said. She also urged people who did not understand her language to verify her actual statement instead of believing misleading translations.
Related Articles
‘I would have felt like a coward’
Explaining what she had actually meant, Swara referred to her reaction while watching the climax of Padmaavat. She said that, hypothetically, if she had been a rape survivor, she might have felt like a coward for not killing herself.
The actress clarified that her comment was about the societal attitude towards rape and survivors, rather than an attack on Padmavati or the women who performed Jauhar.
She argued that society continues to exist amid what she described as a “thriving rape culture” and questioned whether films should convey the message that a woman’s physical purity is more valuable than her life.
‘Women have the right to live’
Swara also referred to a teenage rape survivor from Delhi-NCR and questioned whether survivors should ever be made to feel that dying would have been preferable to surviving an assault.
Recalling Nirbhaya, she highlighted the importance of a woman’s will to live and urged people not to undermine it.
In her post, Swara accused media channels and social media users of repeatedly spreading false allegations against her. She concluded with a strong message: “Women have the right to live even after rape.”
