BJP MLA Maithili Thakur hits back at Swara Bhasker over Padmaavat Jauhar remarks

Bihar BJP MLA and singer Maithili Thakur has strongly criticised actress Swara Bhasker for her recent comments about the Jauhar sequence in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film Padmaavat. Speaking to media in Raipur, Thakur said Bhasker's remarks were "really ugly" and made without adequate knowledge.

"She made a useless remark with full confidence. I think she should not speak on it, if she has no knowledge of it. She should first study it and then speak on it," Thakur said.

Bhasker, at an event in New Delhi earlier this week, had expressed concern that the film glorified Jauhar — the historical practice of mass self-immolation by Rajput women to avoid capture by invading forces. She said the depiction could send a harmful message to rape survivors, suggesting they should have killed themselves to preserve honour.

She also referred to a specific close-up shot of a pregnant woman's belly during the Jauhar scene, which she found deeply disturbing.

Actor Ranvir Shorey had earlier also questioned Bhasker's comparison, arguing that Jauhar was a defiant act against inevitable violence and that equating it with the experience of rape survivors was misleading and shameless.

Padmaavat, released in 2018, stars Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, and Ranveer Singh.