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Swara on ‘aunty’ controversy: Wrong choice of words, but no sinister intention
Shreya Mukherjee
What’s actor Swara Bhasker minus her controversy? Even her pinned tweet reads, “Basically, if I’m not involved in a #twittercontroversy once a week, assume I’m dead!!!”. But Swara asserts that the reason she speaks her mind is not because she enjoys the attention and publicity.
“I speak about issues I feel for and it comes from deep conviction. I’m an artist and need to have conviction. Being a citizen, I need to be involved. I’ve always been actively involved in current affairs, politics, women issues… I can’t turn a blind eye to whatever’s happening around,” the actor reasons.
But there are times, quite often, that Swara goes wrong. Recently, the actor received severe backlash after she referred a four-year-old as “ch***ya” and “ka**na”, in a chat show. Apparently, the 31year-old got upset after the child addressed her as “aunty”.
Swara soon clarified that the comment was said in a “joking and self-deprecating” manner. She explains, “Being a public figure, you need to be cautious, especially if you’re a celebrity. The problem is that I don’t think of myself as a celebrity in my head. But I do agree those were wrong choice of words. But, was it as sinister as it was made out to be? Not at all.”
It’s not the first time that the Veere Di Wedding (2017) actor got into trouble because of her tongue-in-cheek attitude, and she agrees that it is, indeed, affecting her image.
“I am told that I have the reputation of a trouble maker, that I have a nuisance value. Therefore, I get dropped from projects. That’s the reason why my friends and family ask me to keep shut,” says the actor, who will star next in a web series, Sheer Qorma, besides producing two films.
Earlier this year, Swara also went through a crisis in her personal life, as she parted ways with her long-time beau, screenwriter Himanshu Sharma. “It was a very important part of my life… Himanshu is a wonderful person and will always remain so. Whatever happened between us is personal. We know why we went separate ways. If you’re asking whether I’m feeling being kicked when I’m down, not really. Even if I had been successful in my career, this would have affected me equally. At this stage, I don’t trust my emotions entirely. I don’t know if I’m ready for another relationship,” she concludes.