Stepping into the world of movies as a rank outsider, she beat several odds to find her niche with standout roles in projects like raanjhanaa (2013) — and went on to headline movies like Nil battey Sannata (2016) and Anaarkali of Aarah (2017). Unabashed and confident, Swara Bhaskar draws from her strong sense of self — and the world around her – and today effortlessly straddles the domains of commercial and indie cinema. Shraddha Jahagirdar-Saxena spends time with the thinking actor who is poised to showcase a new avatar next year in the romantic comedy Veere Di Wedding.
The inner spaces of a bungalow in a quiet corner of Byculla are abuzz with unusual activity on a Sunday morning. And dot at the appointed hour Swara Bhaskar walks in, clad in a pair of distressed jeans and a simple top, her recently-cut short hair gently brushing her shoulders.
I look at her with curiosity while the introductions take place — and my mind, of its own volition, rewinds to two of her latest reel avatars that have lefta strong imprint on my mind. Just a few days earlier, I had watched Chanda Sahay — the feisty mother in Nil Battey Sannata — who thinks completely out-of-the-box to inspire her daughter to dream, even though this means that she, herself a bai, has to go back to school and learn her lessons — and that too in her child’s class. And, in the second stellar act that lives on in my memory, the actor slips sensuously into the skin of Anaarkali (in Anaarkali of Aarah) — a professional dancing girl who raises a battle cry and seeks first justice and then vengeance when her modesty is violated. In the process, she underlines the importance of respecting a woman’s consent in a given situation — whether she is a prostitute, a dancer or a wife. Swara, as I recall, breathes fire and intensity in both the renditions. And the passion and determination that have fuelled the Delhi-born girl when she bravely ventured into new territory are amply evident on screen.
Swara is soon comfortably ensconced on a chair in front of the bulb-lined mirror. She talks laughingly about the ministrations of her team to beautify her, and confesses that she scarcely peeps into a mirror to see how she looks (even though by her own admission she was vain as a child) — a very un-actor like quality.
This story is from the December 2017 edition of Verve.
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This story is from the December 2017 edition of Verve.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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