Swara Bhaskar on her open letter to Sanjay Leela Bhansali: I didn’t know my voice mattered this much

With the entire film fraternity supporting Padmaavat’s release throughout and applauding Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor’s act in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum opus, actress Swara Bhaskar recently grabbed headlines for slamming the director for glorifying sati and jauhar in his film. 

In an open letter, she mentioned that while she looks up to Bhansali’s body of work, she feels that Padmaavat reduces women to ‘talking vaginas’. The letter stirred up a big controversy with the actresses receiving a lot of flak for using cuss words and being a ‘fake feminist.’ 

Now in an interview with Mid-Day, Swara finally opened up on the controversy surrounding the voicing of her opinions. The actor stated, "I didn’t even know that I was so famous, or my voice mattered this much. Although in a twisted, warped way, it did remind me of the reach I had. However, the Bollywood I know deserves more credit than we give it because the hatred I received for writing that letter came from social media users, not the industry.”

“Bollywood braves too much criticism. It has accepted me the way I am and given me the space to thrive. Fundamentally, I have fierce opinions. And if I have them, I must be prepared to deal with trolls. In Bollywood, however, everyone is only trying hard to hold their ground, despite all odds. So, this is not the industry that must be blamed.", she added. 

When further questioned if it is difficult to be outspoken, she replied, "I have to be careful about the things I say because it will be up for scrutiny. Words are twisted out of context to imply something else. This is also probably the reason behind artistes’ hesitation to back issues that they feel strongly about."

Meanwhile, on the work front, Swara will next be seen in Veerey Di Wedding​, alongside Kareena Kapoor Khan and Sonam Kapoor.