Swara Bhasker has clarified her remarks on the Jauhar sequence in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, after her comments at a recent Delhi event triggered a fresh controversy. The actor said her words had been mistranslated and that she never called Rani Padmaavati or the women who performed Jauhar “cowards”.
Speaking at the Woman, Life, Freedom talk at the India International Centre on August 31, Swara revisited the open letter she had written to Bhansali after watching Padmaavat in 2018. She had questioned the film’s depiction of Jauhar, particularly the implications of linking a woman’s honour with her choice to die rather than survive sexual violence.
Her comments quickly circulated online, with some interpreting her use of the word “coward” as referring to Padmaavati and the women in the scene. In a video shared on Instagram, Swara rejected that interpretation, saying she was instead describing how a rape survivor might internalise such a message. “I never said that Rani Padmaavati was a coward,” she said, adding that her criticism was directed at the film’s messaging rather than the women depicted in it.
Swara argued that her concern was about how cinema represents survivors of sexual violence in a society where rape remains widespread. She questioned whether a film should suggest that a woman’s life becomes less valuable after sexual assault or that death is preferable to surviving it. She also referred to the Nirbhaya case, stressing that the victim’s determination to live should not be forgotten and that society should not underestimate a woman’s will to survive.
The actor also recalled being particularly disturbed by a shot of a pregnant woman during the Jauhar sequence. She questioned the implication of portraying an unborn child as something that must also be sacrificed to prevent the possibility of sexual violence in the future. Swara said she remained disturbed by the scene for five days before deciding to write her open letter to Bhansali.
The renewed remarks have once again divided social media, with critics arguing that Swara’s interpretation overlooks the historical and cultural context of Jauhar, while others have backed her larger argument about the portrayal of sexual violence and survivors in popular cinema. Swara, meanwhile, has maintained that the central point of her criticism was that rape should never be portrayed as the end of a woman’s life.
Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Padmaavat stars Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Sultan Alauddin Khilji. The film, released in 2018, had itself faced considerable controversy over its portrayal of the Rajput queen and the Jauhar sequence.