The debate over the portrayal of Jauhar in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat has resurfaced years after the film’s release.
After a social media backlash against actress Swara Bhasker for her alleged remarks at an event criticising the Jauhar scene in the movie and her subsequent defence saying her words were “completely mistranslated”, Padmaavat’s writer Prakash Kapadia defended the controversial sequence and said it reflected what the filmmakers understood to be the reality of the period.
Kapadia, who co-wrote the 2018 period drama, said the film was made after studying historical material and that the Jauhar scene was not created without research.
“We made the film according to our research and what is written in history books,” Kapadia told the Hindustan Times.
‘It cannot be changed now’
Defending the depiction, Kapadia said films can be interpreted differently by viewers, but maintained that the Jauhar sequence represented the circumstances of the time.
“What we showed, including the Jauhar scene, was the reality of those times; it cannot be changed now,” he said, describing the situation as one of “do or die”.
Also Read: Cases against ‘Padmaavat’ protesters to be withdrawn: Shivraj before bypolls
Kapadia said he had not closely followed Bhasker’s comments and argued that a viewer’s mindset and intention could influence their interpretation of a film.
‘Never called Rani Padmavati or other women cowards’: Swara
Swara Bhasker says her remarks criticising the Jauhar scene were “completely mistranslated” on social media and she never called Rani Padmavati or other women who committed Jauhar “cowards”.
The actress has been at the receiving end of social media ire over comments, made during an event last week, where she said the film glorified ‘Jauhar’, the practice among some Rajput communities in which women committed mass self-immolation to avoid capture, enslavement, or sexual violence when defeat in war appeared imminent.
In a video, posted on X on Tuesday night (September 1), Bhasker explained the context of her remarks.
“This morning, a clip of mine has been going viral on social media. It was from an event yesterday, where I was asked why I had sent an open letter to Sanjay Leela Bhansali after watching ‘Padmaavat’. While explaining what my issue was, I said something that is now being completely mistranslated and spread falsely, claiming that I had said that Rani Padmaavati and the other women who committed Jauhar were cowards,” she said.
Also Read: In defence of Swara Bhasker: Why she should not be vilified for her choices
“I said that when I was watching the climax, I felt, God forbid, if I were a rape survivor, the film might make me feel cowardly for not taking my own life and for having chosen to survive after the assault),” she added.
Padmaavatdirected by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, was a period drama loosely based on the 16th-century epic poem Padmavat by Malik Muhammad Jayasi. The film follows Rani Padmavati of Mewar, played by Deepika Padukone, and her husband Maharawal Ratan Singh, played by Shahid Kapoor, whose kingdom comes under siege from Sultan Alauddin Khilji, portrayed by Ranveer Singh.
The story culminates in Padmavati and the women of Chittor committing jauhar to avoid capture following Khilji’s invasion.
At the time, Bhasker had written a letter to Bhansali to express her discomfort with the scene.
‘Rape epidemic in the country’
Referring to the recent gang-rape incident in Delhi in which a girl was allegedly assaulted inside a vehicle, Bhasker, in her video, said there is a “rape epidemic” in the country.
“This reflects a reality in our country. Should we be making films that send the message that a woman’s purity is more valuable than her life? Should we be telling survivors of rape that it would have been better if they had died, and that surviving is somehow a bad thing?” she asked.
Also Read: Swara Bhasker slams social media platform X for suspending her account permanently
At the August 31 event, Bhasker had criticised the depiction of ‘Jauhar’ in Padmaavatquestioning the message conveyed by the film’s final sequence.
“I was watching it, and I thought that if God forbid, I was a rape survivor, what is this film telling me? I would feel like a coward that I didn’t commit suicide to save my honour. Are we saying that rape is the end of a woman’s life? This scene was so problematic,” she said.
The video from the event went viral on social media with many users criticising the actress for her comments.
(With agency inputs)