'Utterly Shameless': Ranvir Shorey Lashes Out At Swara Bhasker Over Controversial Padmaavat Jauhar Remark

Ranvir Shorey criticised Swara Bhasker over her comments about the Jauhar scene in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmaavat. The actor questioned Swara's comparison involving Jauhar and rape survivors, calling her remarks "utterly shameless". For those unversed, Swara's comments about the controversial scene have resurfaced, with the actress previously describing it as "problematic".

Taking to X on Wednesday, Ranvir shared his disagreement and questioned the connection Swara drew between Jauhar and rape survivors. He wrote, "I still don’t get it! Comparing Jauhar (suicide by fire in defiance of inevitable and endless rape, violence and even necrophilia!) to rape survivors? Where’s the connection? They’re two completely different sets."

He added, "The only intention can be to malign one group of people while trying to whitewash the other! Utterly shameless."

What Did Swara Say About Padmaavat's Jauhar Scene?

Swara had previously written an open letter to Sanjay Leela Bhansali after the release of Padmaavat. During a Woman, Life, Freedom talk at the India International Centre in Delhi recently, she was asked about the letter and discussed her concerns with the film's depiction of Jauhar.

Speaking about the scene, Swara said, "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. Is that what you want to tell in a society like ours where I feel like, anyway, there is a rape epidemic? Is this what we want to tell our survivors that they don’t deserve to live, that if you actually would have been an honourable and brave woman, you would have killed yourself. Are we saying that rape is the end of a woman’s life? This scene was so problematic."

Swara also recalled a particular moment in the sequence that she found especially disturbing. She said a close-up shot of a pregnant woman's belly while she performed Jauhar left her extremely angry and made her react with, "Chii" in disgust.

The actor questioned the idea behind showing an unborn child, who could potentially be a girl, as not deserving to be born because of the possibility of sexual violence by a Muslim ruler. Swara said the scene deeply upset her and that she waited for five days to see whether she continued to feel the same way before writing her open letter.