While there is a raging debate surrounding Sushant Singh Rajput’s outsider status in the Bollywood industry being one of the reasons why he was presumably shunted by the Bollywood biggies and forced to take the drastic step of ending his life, there are some morally reprehensible individuals who have not shied away from exploiting his tragic death to promote their dragging career. In a vile attempt to cash in on the groundswell of sympathy generated among a large section of the population for the struggling outsiders in the Bollywood industry, following the untimely demise of Sushant Singh Rajput, actor Swara Bhaskar asserted that she too is an outsider and sought support from the followers by requesting them to watch her movies in the theatres.
Bhaskar, whose recent controversial adult web series ‘Rasbhari’ holds the distinction of registering the lowest rating on IMDB portal, in an interview on CNN 18, categorised herself with a bunch of actors such as Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Deepak Dobiriyal, Richa Chadda, Jaideep Ahlawat, Rajkumar Rao, Zeeshan Ayyub to claim that she is an outsider just like the others.
If you want to support outsiders.. watch our films in the theatres! 🙏🏽💁🏾♀️ https://t.co/RmmLppDHTq
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) July 2, 2020
“Film industry is not nepotistic, it is feudal. Therefore, when it got the status of an industry and corporate money poured in and various platforms emerged, you started seeing outsiders such as Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkumar Rao, Jaideep Ahlawat, Deepak Dobriyal, Richa Chadda, Huma Qureshi, myself, Monica Dogra and others in prominent roles,” Bhaskar said.
Swara Bhaskar further alleged that it has been the audience who are responsible for elevating star kids to the status of a celebrity. “I would like to ask the audience, you have a lot of sympathy for us (outsiders). What was the box office collection of Nawazuddin starter Mootichoor Chaknachoor? What about Irrfan Khan’s Karwaan? What’s the collection of Rajkumar Rao’s Trapped? What was Richa Chadda’s Article 375‘s box office collection? Sushant Singh Rajput’s Sonchiriya…and my movie Anarkali’s box office collection. Compare them with Heropanti‘s box office collection, Student of the Year’s success, Dhadak movie’s collections. It is the audience who is making these star kids bigger stars. If you feel sympathetic to us, watch our movies in the theatres,” Bhaskar said.
Swara Bhaskar’s mother served on the Censor Board of India
However, while Swara Bhaskar tried to ride on the popular “outsider” wave that had gripped the Bollywood in the wake of Sushant Singh Rajput’s inexplicable death, the reality is starkly different than what Swara would have us believe. Contrary to what Swara claims, the Tanu weds Manu actor is not an outsider, not by a long shot.
In fact, Swara Bhaskar’s mother, Ira Bhaskar had served as a member of the Central Board of Film Certification(CBFC). It is also notable to mention that Ira Bhaskar was the member of the CBFC team that ordered the producers of Ranbir Kapoor starrer ‘Rockstar’ to blur a flag that had ‘Free Tibet’ written on it. The CBFC team at that point in time feared that posters of “Free Tibet” would have hurt the sensitivities of the Chinese and harmed the Indo-Sino ties. Ira Bhaskar was a member of the CBFC team until January 2015 before she decided to quit the board following the CBFC chief Leela Samson’s decision to quit.
Ira Bhaskar is also a film historian, and a professor of Cinema Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Assertion by Swara Bhaskar that she is an outsider is profoundly misleading as her mother had served on the Censor Board of India, a film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. By claiming that she is an outsider, on the same lines as Sushant Singh Rajput, she is not only brazenly lying about her mother’s past associated with CBFC but she is also exploiting and piggybacking on the death of an actor to resurrect her moribund Bollywood career.
