Swara Bhaskar writes open letter to Bhansali

On Saturday, Bollywood actor Swara Bhaskar published a piece on a news website about how she felt after watching Sanjay Leela Bhansali's new film Padmaavat. In the film, Deepika Padukone's character Rani Padmini performs 'jauhar', the act of self-immolation.

In her write-up, Swara wrote, "Surely Sir, you agree that Sati, and Jauhar are not practices to be glorified. Surely, you agree that not withstanding whatever archaic idea of honour, sacrifice, purity propels women and men to participate in and condone such practices; that basically Sati and Jauhar, like the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Honour Killings, are steeped in deeply patriarchal, misogynist and problematic ideas."

She further wrote, "A mentality that believes that the worth of women lies in their vaginas, that female lives are worthless if the women are no longer controlled by male owners or if their bodies have been 'desecrated' by the touch of ; or even the gaze of a male who doesn't by social sanction 'own' or 'control' the female."

Singer Suchitra Krishnamoorthi has criticised Swara Bhaskar for the tone and crux of her article.
She tweeted "Funny that an actress who can play an erotic dancer/prostitute with such elan should feel like a vagina after watching a story of a pious queen. What standards are these ...tch tch (sic)"