‘Stalking isn’t depicted from the woman’s POV’
They might be public figures today, but most celebrities have known the ‘normal’, ‘everyday’ side to life as well. Before entering showbiz, they, too, dealt with the same problems as anyone else. Swara Bhasker reveals that being stalked is one such scarring experience she had to go through.
“The experience of being stalked is one of the scariest things that can happen to a person in their lives,” she says. “I had a stalker in college, and I was surprised to see how nervous, scared and uncomfortable he made me. He’d just keep following me and staring at me. He’d ceaselessly be lurking in my line of vision — non-stop. And actually, I had no reason to fear because our university was super safe for women and my parents lived on campus. So, at a rational level, I knew I was safe. But that’s the thing with stalking
— it can turn your safest spaces into sinisterseeming, fearful ones,” the actor adds.
The 31year-old goes on to relate how the stalker showed up at her house at 6am and confronted her parents saying he was in love with the actor. But her parents, she recalls, turned out to be just the support system she needed. “My parents were taken aback as well, but sent him off politely. Finally, I decided to get over my fear and confront him. I walked up to him and said I need to talk to him. I said whatever he’s doing is freaking me out and needs to stop! And that day... somehow my fear of him fell away,” reveals Swara, whose next film revolves around LGBTQI+ themes.
She emphasises on how content on TV, web and films today needs to be relevant and prioritise real issues in our midst such as stalking and sexual harassment.
And clearly not happy with the way it has been dealt with till now, the Raanjhanaa (2013) actor says, “I’ve realised what an important issue stalking is and how it’s never represented from the woman’s or stalked person’s point of view in our cinema and content. It’s always romanticised. That’s actually irresponsible. I’m so glad that a web series, Hello Mini, is telling the story from the woman’s perspective.”
Rishabh Suri