Swara Bhasker has responded to the backlash over her recent comments on the jauhar sequence in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat. After a clip from her appearance at the Woman, Life, Freedom talk in Delhi went viral, the actor said her remarks had been misinterpreted and falsely circulated as a statement against Rani Padmaavati and the women who committed jauhar.In a video shared on Instagram on Tuesday, Swara clarified that she had never called Rani Padmaavati a “coward”. Instead, she said her comments were about the message she felt the film’s climax could send to survivors of sexual violence in a society where rape culture remains a serious concern.Swara Bhasker says her Padmaavat comments were ‘completely mistranslated’Explaining the controversy surrounding the viral clip, Swara said, “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 further clarified, “I want to make it absolutely clear that I did not say that Rani Padmaavati was a coward or that the other women in the palace were cowards. Those who want to abuse me, go ahead, but at least abuse me for the right thing. What I had said was that while watching the climax, I thought, God forbid, if I were a rape survivor, I would feel like a coward for not having taken my own life — that if I had survived after being raped, I would feel like a coward.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Swara Bhasker (@reallyswara) According to Swara, this was the central concern behind her criticism of the film’s climax. She argued that, in a society grappling with widespread sexual violence, the idea of associating a woman’s honour with her death or sexual purity can send a troubling message to survivors.Referring to the broader reality of sexual violence in the country, including a recent alleged gang-rape case in Delhi, she said, “This is the reality of 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 a rape survivor that it would have been better if she had died, and that surviving the assault was a bad thing?.”She further referred to the Nirbhaya case, saying that the courage of the young woman who fought against her six rapists until her last breath should never be forgotten. Swara said Nirbhaya had a strong will to live and stressed that one should never underestimate a woman’s desire and determination to survive.Story continues below this adALSO READ: Ram Gopal Varma defends Allu Aravind’s ‘Who was Yash before KGF’ remarkWhat Swara said about the jauhar scene at the Delhi eventThe controversy began after Swara spoke about Padmaavat during the Woman, Life, Freedom talk at the India International Centre in Delhi on August 31. Recalling her reaction to the film’s climax, she said the sequence of hundreds of women committing jauhar made her think about how a survivor of sexual violence might interpret the imagery.“I’m watching this, these 800 women committing jauhar, and I was like, yaar, if I had been, God forbid, if I was a rape survivor, what is this film telling me? I would feel like a coward, that I didn’t kill myself to save my honour. Is that what you want to tell in a society like ours, where I feel like there’s anyway a rape epidemic?” she said.She continued, “Is this what we want to tell our survivors, that you didn’t deserve to live? That if you actually had been honourable and brave women, you would have killed yourself. Are we saying that rape is the end of a woman’s life?”Story continues below this adSwara also recalled being particularly disturbed by a shot involving a pregnant woman during the sequence.“And then there was that one shot, it made me so mad, I was like, chiii, in the audience loudly. There is a close-up of a pregnant woman’s belly. And she is going, so you’re saying that a foetus that might be female doesn’t deserve to be born, because she might be raped by a Muslim ruler?” she said.Swara Bhasker’s 2018 open letter to Sanjay Leela BhansaliSwara’s criticism of Padmaavat is not new. In January 2018, following the film’s release, she wrote an open letter to Bhansali, published by The Wire, in which she questioned what she saw as the glorification of jauhar and the association of a woman’s worth with sexual purity.Her broader argument was that surviving sexual violence does not diminish the value or dignity of a woman’s life, and that women should not be defined by their bodies or sexuality.Story continues below this adPadmaavat, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, starred Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, alongside Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. The film was released in January 2018 after months of controversy and was inspired by Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s 16th-century epic poem Padmavat. Its story centres on Rani Padmavati and the conflict involving Rajput ruler Ratan Singh and Alauddin Khilji.The film’s climactic depiction of jauhar went on to become one of its most widely discussed and debated sequences.