Swara Bhasker: ‘I feel every culture evolves with time’: Shriya Pilgaonkar REACTS to Swara Bhasker’s ‘Padmaavat’ controversy | Hindi Movie News

Shriya Pilgaonkar has opened up about the ongoing discussion surrounding Swara Bhasker‘s comments on the Jauhar sequence in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Padmaavat’.The actor spoke about the importance of understanding historical practices within the social and cultural circumstances of their time. She also cautioned against applying present-day standards to people who lived in a very different era. Speaking to Filmygyan, Shriya Pilgaonkar reflected on how cultures and social values change over generations. She said, “Sitting in 2026, we are discussing things that happened 100 or 200 years ago and trying to understand how people felt at that time—their values, what they wanted to do, and what pressures they faced. We can’t judge them based on the standards of today.

Shriya Pilgaonkar says culture evolves with circumstances

Shriya Pilgaonkar further explained that cultural values cannot be viewed as something fixed. According to her, changes in circumstances and human experiences play a major role in shaping how societies think. She added, “I feel every culture evolves with time. It evolves with circumstances, with situations, and with the human condition. So, I don’t think it’s fair to assume a particular mindset or make a generic judgment about a time that was fundamentally different from ours.” Her comments come amid renewed attention to Swara Bhasker’s criticism of the Jauhar depiction in ‘Padmaavat’. Swara Bhasker had questioned the message that audiences could take away from the sequence. She had particularly raised concerns about its possible impact on rape survivors.

Swara Bhasker clarifies her ‘Padmaavat’ remarks

Swara Bhasker later addressed the criticism she received after her comments went viral. In a video shared on Instagram, she said that her remarks had been misinterpreted. She clarified that she had not described Rani Padmaavati or the women in the palace as cowards.Swara Bhasker said, “This morning, a clip of mine has been going viral on social media. It was from an event yesterday, where I was asked why I had sent an open letter to Sanjay Leela Bhansali after watching Padmaavat. While explaining what my issue was, I said something that is now being completely mistranslated and spread falsely, claiming that I had said that Rani Padmaavati and the other women who committed Jauhar were cowards.”She added, “Main clearly kehna chahti hoon, maine aisa bilkul nahi kaha ki Rani Padmaavati Kayar thi yaa Mahal ki baaki aurtien Kayar thi Jo log mujhe gaaliyan dena chahte hain, dijiye par sahi cheez pe dijiye. Maine kaha tha jab main climax dekh rahi thi, mujhe laga, bhagwan naa kare agar main rape peedita hoti toh main kayar mehsoos karti ki maine aapni jaan kyun nahi li, Ki main balatkar ke baad Zinda Bach gayi toh main kayar hoon(I want to make it absolutely clear that I did not say that Rani Padmaavati was a coward or that the other women in the palace were cowards. Those who want to abuse me, go ahead, but at least abuse me for the right thing. What I had said was that while watching the climax, I thought, God forbid, if I were a rape survivor, I would feel like a coward for not having taken my own life — that if I had survived after being raped, I would feel like a coward).”

Swara Bhasker questions the message of the Jauhar sequence

Swara Bhasker connected her concerns to the wider issue of sexual violence. She questioned whether films should depict narratives that could be interpreted as placing a woman’s honour above her life. She also referred to the Nirbhaya case while speaking about the importance of a survivor’s will to live.Swara Bhasker said, “Yeh asliyat hai humare desh mein. Kya hume aisi filmein banani chahiye jahan yeh sandesh jaa raha hai ki aurat ki pavitrata uski zindagi se Jyada mulyawaan tha? Kya hume rape peedita ko yeh btaana chahiye ki tumhari jaan hi chali jaati, toh sahi rehta, tum Bach gayi toh yeh buri baat hai? (This is the reality of our country. Should we be making films that send the message that a woman’s purity is more valuable than her life? Should we be telling a rape survivor that it would have been better if she had died, and that surviving the assault was a bad thing?).”

Swara Bhasker’s original criticism of ‘Padmaavat’

While discussing the sequence, Swara Bhasker had explained how watching the climax made her question the message being conveyed to survivors of sexual violence. While speaking at the Woman, Life, Freedom talk at the India International Centre in Delhi on August 31, she 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 Bhasker also spoke about a shot featuring a pregnant woman during the Jauhar sequence. She said, “Then there was this one shot, which made me so mad that I shouted ‘chii’ loudly; there is a close-up of a pregnant woman’s belly performing jauhar. So you are telling me that fetus, which might be a female, doesn’t deserve to be born because she might be raped by a Muslim ruler. I was so mad. I waited for five days to check if I still feel like that, and after five days, I wrote a letter.”