Swara Bhasker is a no-nonsense person who is pretty vocal about her stand. It is her straight forwardness which usually lands her in problem on social media with the amount of criticism she receives. But Swara takes everything in her stride. Recently, she was called a 'B' grade actress and a 'needy outsider' on social media by Kangana Ranaut. In an exclusive interview with us for her upcoming digital release 'Flesh', the actress opened up on how she is attracted to empowering roles, she also opened up on social media criticism, reacted to labels and nasty comments made, allegations of supporting nepotism and more.
Opening up on her character in Flesh, she informed, "It was definitely a show which was draining when we shot it. But luckily for me, I play the role of a cop who is at it to expose the crime. It is such an empowering character. There is a lot of hope in the story." When asked about Kangana's comment on her, if it affects her personally, Swara shared, "Firstly, in my head, B stands for 'best' so I am like go ahead and call me whatever you like. Sometimes what people say reveals more about their mentality than the people they are talking about. That is what happened with the "needy outsider" and "B grade" actors debate. It is really just that. I think people were revealing their own mentality rather than saying anything about me or Taapsee (Pannu)."
She added, "Plus I want to say this, it is a democratic society and people have the right to their opinion and I believe in freedom of speech and expression and I would defend anyone's right even if it means I have to listen to gaalis or be criticised. I am completely okay with people having an opinion about me, like I have opinion about them. I have no problem with that."
She, however, emphasised that the main reason for her to answer back was when lies about her stand were being propagated. She responded, "Initially, I had replied with humour, if you noticed but I feel that you shouldn't say a lie. You can call me what you want, but you shouldn't lie. This video which went viral about me asking Karan Johar about nepotism is a very old one, in fact, earlier than the entire nepotism debate started. I, in fact, did not say nepotism. I said Bollywood is feudal and I stand by it. To say that I support nepotism, is quite frankly, a lie. It is a falsehood and at that point, I was like, that's it, you can call me whatever you want but you are lying. I am not unused to criticism, that is pretty much I get on social media, it really doesn't bother me. I know my calibre and I am confident about my craft. I don't need validation from anyone at all. I frankly don't need validation from either from an insider or outsider as well. I have never waited around to get validation from even Karan for that matter or anybody else."
She concluded, "I am a person who has stood up for what I believe in, to the extent, I had written a letter to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who is one of the biggest directors and I had put my name on that letter. That is my level of believe in my own conviction. I don't need validation from anyone except my audience, which thankfully I have got."
