Anaarkali Of Aarah role was a risk, says Swara Bhaskar

Swara Bhaskar, who has been lauded for her role as a village dancer in the film Anaarkali of Aarah, says it was a risk she took. “There are a lot of female-centric films being made, a lot of them trying to pick up the issue of sexuality, but they are kind of safe,” Swara said.

“They are picking up protagonists we can relate to, the multiplex crowd relates to that protagonist or it is very sweet subject that is emotional, that is about family, friendship and friends or it’s the working girls who we all can relate to.”

“Who relates to this Aarah, desi, foul-mouthed, Bihari dialect, spewing pan and beedi smoking like a ‘characterless’ woman? Female self-expression in a sexual sense was the dominant theme of the film and that I say is risky,” Swara added.

Talking about the theme of the movie, Swara says most films show women as ‘bechaari’ (helpless) in the end, but her role in Avinash Das’s directorial outrightly says otherwise. “Till now, every Hindi film that talks about sexual assault and violence of any kind takes great efforts to show that the women were ‘bechaaris’ or that they were normal victims, normal girls... We are not even getting into all that,” the 29-year-old said.

“We are saying. ‘Yes she is characterless. Yes, may be in your language, she is a slut. Now let’s start the conversation’. When you frame it like this, then you are putting consent right there without any apology,” she added.