Abstract
An outsider to the Hindi Film Industry, Swara Bhasker has in a short period acquired an impressive, award-winning and diverse body of work, which includes commercial hits and content-driven independent projects making her among the most credible and acclaimed young actresses of contemporary Hindi cinema. In this interview with the editors, Swara addresses the changing nature of the ‘public’ figure of the actress, on her ‘outsider’ status in the film industry and on her performance as Anarkali in Anarkali of Aarah (2017), which depicts a feisty singer-performer of raunchy songs from the heartland of Bhojpur who fights for the right to her body and dignity.
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- 1.
A beedi is a thin cigarette, filled with tobacco flake wrapped in a leaf and tied with a string. Beedi-smoking tends to be associated with the poor, since the tobacco-filled leaves are inexpensive compared to regular cigarettes.
- 2.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat (2018) ostensibly inspired by Jayasi’s Sufi poem re-presents the story of a Rajput queen’s beauty arousing the desire of Sultan Alaudin Khilji who laid siege on her husband’s kingdom. Spectacularly mounted, the film thickened the stereotype of the marauding Muslim invader and the glory of the Upper-caste Hindu wife who voluntarily dies on a pyre rather than have her honour sullied. This practice of Sati/Jauhar, once propagated by Brahmanical patriarchy, as also abetting it, is a crime under the Indian Penal Code. Bhansali’s glorification of Sati was sharply criticised and Swara’s was a foremost voice from within the industry that argued, ‘Practices like Sati, Jauhar, FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), Honour Killings should not be glorified because they don’t merely deny women equality, they deny women their personhood. They deny women humanity. They deny women the right to life. And that is wrong’. https://thewire.in/film/end-magnum-opus-i-felt-reduced-vagina.
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The Karni Sena, a Rajput caste organization possibly formed in 2006 in Rajasthan, led a campaign of violence and destruction, alleging that Padmaavat (2018), tarnished the reputation of Rajputs and maligned a thirteenth century Rajput queen, whose existence outside of a tragic ballad by a Sufi poet has been disputed by historians. The Sena’s protests began even before the shooting of the film had ended and despite several reassurances from the makers of the film, it kept issuing incendiary statements including death threats against the actors of the film and even attacked Bhansali on the sets of the film. The film, when released, went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2018.
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The Kathua case refers to the abduction, gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl, Asifa Bano, who belonged to the nomadic Bakharwal community, near Kathua (Jammu and Kashmir) in January 2018. Since the involved accused were policemen in collusion with powerful Hindu locals who wanted to teach the Bakharwals a lesson over land acquisition, the case became a communal one which also sparked a national debate on the rights of the girl children belonging to tribal minorities of the region. Several actors, including Bhasker, participated in a hashtag #Kathua campaign, demanding justice for Asifa in April 2018.
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An Interview with Swara Bhasker. (2019). Playing Anaarkali (2017): Gender, Morality and Erotica. In: Sengupta, S., Roy, S., Purkayastha, S. (eds) 'Bad' Women of Bombay Films. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26788-9_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26788-9_21
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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