Swara Bhasker responds to reports that claim she has admitted to have gone under the knife on a comedy show; says the episode has taught her not to joke on camera and that ‘self-deprecating humour is a no-no’
Riya Sharma (BOMBAY TIMES; February 13, 2018)

Swara Bhasker recently found herself to be the subject of reports claiming that she had admitted to having ‘cosmetic surgery’ on an episode of the comedy show, Entertainment Ki Raat, which was aired on Sunday night. While the promos of the show did not mention anything related to her age or cosmetic treatments, a report recently stated that the actress said on the show that she does not like to talk about her age and has also gone under the knife. Swara clarifies, “I didn’t think anything was happening. I was answering questions candidly and in jest, since we were on a comedy show. When asked about how I lost weight, I spoke about how I was so worried about weight loss (for her next, Veere Di Wedding) that I did everything from working out in the gym to the Keto diet to naturopathy to Fat Freezing – which is a non invasive method of spot fat reduction. I have no shame in talking about this. I’m an actor and I was working towards a role. It is my job to work towards looking and being the part I have to play.”

Swara adds, “I have never undergone any kind of invasive treatment, nor any surgery. I have nothing against people who undergo cosmetic surgery, I believe in the principle, ‘My Body, My Right’, so if people want to have cosmetic surgery, that is their personal choice and I’m no one to judge them. But personally, other than dental treatment over the years, I have never undergone any invasive or cosmetic surgery. I like my body and face the way they are, I’m comfortable and confident in my skin. I spoke of this quite frankly on the show.”

Talking about the context of her hiding her age, Swara explains that she had previously spoken about it on a different talk show, where she had joked about being in a Wiki-war with unknown people on her age. When she was asked the same on Entertainment Ki Raat, she repeated the episode. “I have spoken previously in a light-hearted way about being in a Wiki-war with unknown persons about my age, and how I’ve spun ‘an elaborate fake web of lies to hide my age’. I was simply jokingly pointing to the fact that ageing is a stress factor for actresses and I am no different. My manner of dealing with it is to turn it into a public joke, something of an open secret, because humour can be a subversive manner of challenging stereotypes about ageing and glamour. ‘Swara’s age war’ was just a private joke with a few friends of mine, where they had changed my age on Wikipedia a bunch of times and found that someone would change it back. It was ridiculous; sometimes one friend would change my age to 16, another would make it 400 years, another would make my year of birth 2000 BC. It was that silly,” she explains.

The actress, usually vocal about her point of view, says the recent episode has taught her not to joke on camera. “I guess the lesson people want me to ‘learn’ is that I should not joke or say anything in jest on camera, and self deprecating humour is a no-no. It is no wonder that celebrities never make any comments on any issue. Because as a public figure one is so easily vulnerable to spiteful slander,” she signs off.

Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 10, 2018)

After raising hackles of her filmi brethren with a rather brazen takedown of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum opus for its portrayal of women, Swara Bhasker’s fiery oration has turned to frank speak rather quickly. The actress was on the TV show Entertainment Ki Raat — which is gaining a reputation for its innovative promotional pranks (Shreyas Talpade previously announced on a dare that he was quitting showbiz) — when she made some rather uncharitable revelations about herself.

A source from the show revealed, “Swara said that like most film industry people, she doesn’t like revealing her age. Once, a fan, who happened to be Swara’s college mate, pointed out on the social media that her age on her Wikipedia page was incorrect, and proceeded to correct it.” It snowballed into a brief back and forth as the actress’s PR team kept changing it back to the desired number. Right now her age is listed as 29.

Swara also fessed up to having undergone cosmetic surgery to keep her weight in check. “She said that she battles insecurities despite being a critically acclaimed actress, and that she underwent fat-freezing recently,” the source added. So much for chest-thumping prose…