SWARA’S LONE BATTLE AGAINST FACELESS TROLLS

Actress Mita Vashisht believes that this is the result of society having lost its bearings. “Earlier, the devil stayed hidden in society. The filth in a human being’s consciousness lived and died with the person. What is it today that allows this devil to show its face, to act out the bidding of its sick mind and have no fear? That’s what we have to introspect about as a nation,” she asserts.

Writer and journalist Pritish Nandy is a little more sympathetic. “Swara is brave and honest. I think many others in the movie industry too are brave and honest, and support causes like #MeToo, but have chosen not to come out and make statements because they don’t want to enter or encourage the politics of gender strife. They stand up only when specific issues that matter to them are raised,” he says.

Mita begs to differ, and says, “I think actors and actresses are a very fragile lot and very worried about their ‘ careers’. The idea being that your life is either a career or it’s nothing. It’s a very limited worldview about life and even about one’s job as an actor. So, why does anyone expect anything like sublimity from them?”

The current exception to fighting this good fight — at a great personal cost — seems to be Swara, who is still taking on trolls daily.

I think actors and actresses are a very fragile lot and very worried about their ‘ careers’ — MITA VASHISHT