With upcoming Krishna Sen biopic requiring her to gain weight, Swara Bhasker on taking to guilt-free treats when isolated at home
Uma Ramasubramanian (MID-DAY; May 8, 2020)

With shutters across city gyms pulled down due to Coronavirus lockown, Bollywood's top brass has returned to its nutrition manual to micromanage each calorie consumed, apart from attempting every iteration of body-weight workouts that can be fancied. But, Swara Bhasker has been unperturbed about weighing scale fluctuations as she happily indulges in copious amounts of carbs.

"I have been utilising this time unproductively," she laughs, adding that the weight gain could well aid her for her next film, the Krishna Sen biopic, which sees her impersonate a woman who weds at least two women under the guise of being a man. "I have been eating carbs and sugar, and am taking to midnight junk-food indulgences. More than kilos, I must focus on adding muscle mass around my torso, shoulders, and arms. However, no one knows how long this lockdown will last. I suppose we'll start work by the end of this year."

An array of developments led to filming being deferred from the close of 2019, when it was to initially set to roll. "First, our director was busy with projects. Then, we needed to spend time to crack a good script that we were satisfied with. And finally, I had to wrap up my acting commitments before jumping into this," says Bhasker, who is also co-producing the project.

Unwilling to join the bandwagon, Bhasker isn't considering a direct-to-OTT release just yet. "We don't know what the world will look like after this pandemic ends. So let's wait and watch," she says, addressing the decision taken by several filmmakers to take the digital route.

In the meantime, she is neck deep in work, trying to create a noteworthy script of a story that has piqued her interest. "I've been trying to crack this since a year," she says, without revealing details.

Swara Bhasker reflects on her decade-long Bollywood journey
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; September 18, 2019)

"It has taught me to walk straight in heels," grins Swara Bhasker as she reflects on her last decade in the industry. It has been a significant journey for the actor, who — armed with a degree from JNU and the courage to play unconventional characters — headed to Bollywood 10 years ago. "I didn't know anyone here; had no contacts, no connections, apart from writer Anjum Rajabali, whose office I lived in," recalls Bhasker.

While she showed promise in a slew of supporting roles, she counts Raanjhanaa (2013) as the game-changer in her career. "Before Raanjhanaa released, I often asked myself, 'Should I drop it all and go back to Delhi?' But fortunately, good work and the opportunity to associate with good people kept coming my way."

Her crowning achievement in the industry has been her production house, that she launched earlier this year with brother Ishaan. Their first project is a biopic on Krishna Sen, an Uttarakhand-based woman who duped two women into marriage, convincing them that she was a man. In the process, she extorted money from them. Quiz her on the film's progress, and she says, "We are scripting the film."