Swara Bhasker, the talented actor who won hearts with her performances, is nowadays being conferred with the epithet, ‘lady who loves controversies’, for her actions -- both onscreen and off-screen. Her recent film '
Veere Di Wedding
’, didn’t disappoint both supporters and trolls, who seem to wage a war on social media on behalf of the actor. The masturbation scene, especially, has caused much uproar on social media, with people debating: How much is too much?
In an exclusive interview to ETimes, Swara seems unperturbed. “I am not surprised for the (controversy over) the masturbation scene,” she says. “Society is very hypocritical when it comes to the standards for men and women. It is completely okay for men to do whatever they want, and it 's accepted as normal. However, for women it becomes very bold and controversial,” Swara adds.
It seems her recent controversies (from JNU to pro-Lahore comment) has perhaps made her stronger personality who have now accepted that trolls and differentiated opinions are realities celebrities have to live with in today’s times.
She confesses that she was prepared for the reaction from a section of audience, and has learnt to ignore it over a period of time. “I did anticipate the kind of hate that would come on my way when I was doing the masturbation scene. But I don't think you should care about that. As an actor or an artist you should not care about what the reaction would be while performing the scene. Because that is distracting, it's unhelpful and that creates a fear which is not going to help you in your performance in any way. I just chose not to think about it.”
That said, the actor who has vociferously supported freedom of speech still doesn’t mince her words responding to the trolls. “I knew that I would get trolled for it. I don't know what to say to the people who think woman doing masturbation is wrong or slut shame an actress who performs masturbation on the screen. I don't have words to say, it shows their mentality which is both narrow minded and low,” she says.
“In any case, trolling is a very low activity. You are hiding behind the anonymity of your Twitter name and just abuse and shame people who you don't know or to whom you may not meet ever in life and if though you meet, you are probably going to take a selfie with them. I don't have time to run behind these people because they are useless and that's why they want to pull others into their useless gang,” she adds.
She concludes the conversation with an advice for her fellow actors, “I would suggest to all the actors who does face trolling that it is unhelpful to think about them. You should reply them with one laugh or reply in a Sakshi style.”