Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat starring Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor is receiving rave response from the audience and critics. The film is blockbuster at the Box Office since day one despite protest in the some states of the country.
However, what has hit headlines about the film is, Bollywood actress Swara Bhaskar’s open letter over glorification of Sati and Jauhar in the film. In an open letter to Padmaavat director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Swara Bhaskar decries glorification of Sati and Jauhar which deny women the right to live.
Also Read: Actress Swara Bhaskar Recalls Sexual Harassment: “Film’s Director Arrived In My Room, Drunk, & Asked To Be Hugged”
Anaarkali of Aarah star, Swara Bhaskar started her open letter with praising and congratulating SLB for getting the release of Padmaavat and concluded by suggesting that Padmaavat reduces women to ‘talking vaginas’.
In the letter, she has written that she felt “reduced to a vagina” while watching the film. In her piece written for ‘The Wire’, Swara also mentions that she stood by the filmmaker when ‘Padmaavat’ faced flak including death threats to Deepika and Bhansali.
Here are some points that she wrote in the open letter that has taken social media by storm:
Women have the right to live, despite being raped sir.Women have the right to live, despite the death of their husbands, male ‘protectors’, ‘owners’, ‘controllers of their sexuality’.. whatever you understand the men to be.
Women have the right to live — independent of whether men are living or not.
Women have the right to live. Period.
Women are not only walking talking vaginas.
Yes, women have vaginas, but they have more to them as well. So their whole life need not be focused on the vagina, and controlling it, protecting it, maintaining it’s purity. (Maybe in the 13th century that was the case, but in the 21st century we do not need to subscribe to these limiting ideas. We certainly do not need to glorify them. )
It would be nice if the vaginas are respected; but in the unfortunate case that they are not, a woman can continue to live. She need not be punished with death, because another person disrespected her vagina without her consent.
There is life outside the vagina, and so there can be life after rape. (I know I repeat, but this point can never be stressed enough.)
In general there is more to life than the vagina.
However, Swara Bhaskar’s this letter has not gone well among many on social media. Singer-actor Suchitra Krishnamoorthi has slammed Swara over her role in the 2017 acclaimed film ‘Anarkali of Aarah’.
Funny that an actress who can play an erotic dancer/ prostitute with such elan should feel like a vagina after watching a story of a pious queen . What standards are these …tch tch
— Suchitra Krishnamoorthi (@suchitrak) January 28, 2018
Replying to Krishnamoorthy, Swara said that how word ‘vagina’ has created problem for everyone in her open letter.
Funny that people cannot get over the fact that a woman said Vagina! Funny that in a 2440 word article making fairly comprehensible arguments they only remember the word Vagina!!! ? So… Vagina vagina vagina vagina vagina vagina……………vagina vagina VAGINA!!!!! https://t.co/pVh7rskZHL
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) January 28, 2018
Here’s how she has responded to trolls:
Priyanka read the article again.. what part of it ‘belittles’ women. And no there is no jealousy.. tell me every time you think a thought, or have an opinion; is it because you are jealous???? That’s an unfortunate and emotionally draining existence. My sympathies ?? https://t.co/TQofAnAdqM
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) January 29, 2018
Totally your choice Sonal.. saying or not saying the word vagina has nothing to do with being a feminist.. but in a 2440 word article about a film- that ur only recall is the use of the word vagina.. may have something to do with.. i wonder what? 🙂 🙂 🙂 https://t.co/vukMMxds40
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) January 28, 2018
Actually Rohit my career as an actor- supporting and lead has been full of some v fulfilling roles. Won a bunch of awards. One was an international award. Tell me about ur career.. what is it again? Howse it going?? https://t.co/dkBkK9BZKr
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) January 29, 2018
Read Full Letter Here: The Wire
