Neha Choudhary (BOMBAY TIMES; April 21, 2019)

Feisty and outspoken, Swara Bhasker spoke about how she landed up in Bollywood, working with Salman Khan and more at an event in Jaipur. Swara stated that being in Hindi films has been a humbling journey because she had arrived in Mumbai with ‘intellectual arrogance’. “Bollywood made me realise that every profession has its own rules. You just need to learn how to play your game. And it’s better to question those rules, however abrupt they are when you have achieved something,” she said.

Her role in Veere Di Wedding (VDW) was considered bold by many. But Swara thinks otherwise. “I have never understood what bold means. For me, doing Nil Battey Sannata was a bold choice as I played a de-glamorous mother of a 15-year-old. VDW was an obvious choice. Kaun nahi karega Sonam and Kareena ke saath ek commercial film?” Swara asked.

‘INITIALLY, BEING TROLLED WAS HURTFUL’
The actress has been vocal about her opinions on social media and as a result, has often been targeted by trolls. Opening up on that, she said, “I think I am one of those few celebrities who have verified trolls. Jaise log subah uthke bhajan sunte hain, main subah uthke Twitter pe gaaliyan khaati hoon. Initially, it was hurtful. It almost felt like that the person is standing next to you and abusing you. Now, I am used to it. I don’t read my mentions. Kuch dikh gaya toh dikh gaya, otherwise I have stopped reading my mentions.”

‘AFTER TANU WEDS MANU, I HAVE WORKED FOR Rs 1000 PER DAY’
On her mantra to survive in the film industry, Swara shared that she has never said no to work. “After Tanu Weds Manu (TWM), I was sitting at home thinking that sabko kaam achha laga, ab aage se kaam aayega. I didn’t know that you are supposed to hire managers, PRs, stylists, etc. So, no one was calling me. It took me a while to understand the game. But I decided not to say no to work. After TWM, I have worked for Rs 1000 per day. The other thing that I did was to take risks and it worked in my favour. I did every single role that people advised me not to do. People told me, if you want to be a heroine, don’t play the heroine’s best friend. In TWM, I played Kangana Ranaut’s best friend. Nobody wanted to be Salman Khan’s sister. I played Salman’s sister in Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (PRDP). And I had Nil Battey Sannata coming up after PRDP. I took that risk and it worked,” she said.

‘I LOOK AT NEPOTISM AS HOW YOU WOULD LOOK AT CASTE AND CLASS PRIVILEGE’
Being an outsider in Bollywood, Swara was asked about her opinion on nepotism. “We are lying to ourselves if we say it doesn’t exist. I think Bollywood is a very close-knit, relationship-based industry. There are insiders and outsiders; I am an outsider. Nepotism is not a question of talent. What people are pointing out is that the star kids have a certain kind of access or privilege which I or any other outsider will never get. What Sonam (Kapoor), Sara (Ali Khan) or Alia (Bhatt) have achieved in one year, it took me years to achieve. And one must not negate that privilege. I look at the whole nepotism debate as to how you would look at caste and class privilege in society,” she said.