{"id":11670,"date":"2023-05-20T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-20T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/?p=11670"},"modified":"2023-05-18T10:01:54","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T04:31:54","slug":"swara-bhasker-discusses-movies-ott-services-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/2023\/05\/20\/swara-bhasker-discusses-movies-ott-services-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Swara Bhasker discusses movies, OTT services, and more."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Swara Bhasker is one actress who has happily hopped onto the OTT bandwagon and is reaping rich benefits. While others were sitting idle and baking banana bread during the lockdown, Swara had four web series out on OTT. And she isn\u2019t averse to taking risk or shying away from something risque as long as it indulges her creative cravings. She\u2019s always spoken her mind and is known for her anti-establishment stance. She reasons if the artistes don\u2019t speak up when other sectors get affected, then being quiet will become a habit and they\u2019ll easily submit to curbs when creativity gets targeted. She doesn\u2019t know about others but she\u2019s unwilling to go gently into that dark night. Excerpts from a rollicking interview with the feisty actress who doesn\u2019t believe in being just another pretty face…How does it feel to have had four web series released during the lockdown?
It feels great. Rasbhari got released in June 2020, then came Flesh in August, Bhaag Beanie Bhaag in December and the latest is Aapkey Kamrey Mein Koi Rehta Hai (AKMKRH), streaming on MX from January 2021 onwards. So I\u2019m loving it. For a year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, this is great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Horror-comedy is not a highly explored genre in India. Were you skeptical before signing AKMKRH?
When I read a script, I never think of what genre it belongs to. I read it for what it is. So when I read its script, I really liked it. It was edgy and funny. For me, the horror in the series is how can four boys be so dumb. Gaurav Sinha, the writer and director of the series has done a good job with balancing the humour and the scary bits. Of course, there is horror but it\u2019s a story of four friends, a comedy of errors. The only thing I was worried about was that whenever a story requires a suspension of disbelief, it can get tacky or cheesy. I feel if your audience is interested in you, they don\u2019t necessarily have to believe in what they are watching. If you\u2019ve got them hooked in, then you\u2019re okay. So the challenge for me was whether as an actor I can engage you enough that you\u2019ll be interested in my performance even though you don\u2019t believe in what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What were the shooting timelines for your series? Did you shoot anything during the lockdown?
All four were shot between the end of 2018 till the start of 2020. Bhaag Beanie Bhaag was the last thing I shot before the lockdown. But I dubbed for two or three of these shows during the lockdown. So we had this impressive set-up with the sound engineer in Mumbai and I was in a studio in Delhi with a different sound engineer. Everything was sanitised after each sitting and
I bought my own headphones. Everything was shot before but a lot of the post-production happened during the lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All your four roles are different from each\u00a0other. How did you prepare for them and was it difficult to flow from one to the other?
As much as possible, I try not to shoot two things together. I\u2019ve done it once before and it\u2019s \u00a0most distracting and irritating. It\u2019s also very hard.\u00a0 Later, when I watched these shows, I realised I had prepared well for each of them. The transition from one to the other happened during the process of preparation. So for me, if you prepare well for each role, you will be able to find that transition in the preparation. There\u2019s also this new thing I\u2019ve started doing. Actors always try hard to get into a role, but we never have a process of getting out of it. I\u2019ve started to do that now. Especially after Anarkali Of Arrah.\u00a0I hadn\u2019t realised that it\u00a0had affected me psychologically. After that film, I started to question myself as to why there was so much anger within \u00a0me or what was happening with me. I realised that\u00a0I got into the role but\u00a0never got out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you feel being an entertainer and an active voice of activism can go hand-in-hand?
I never saw them as being in opposition with each other. Having an opinion is the most natural thing. We are born with a brain and a mouth. Opinions make us human. My pet can\u2019t have an opinion and even if it does, it can\u2019t express it. So I don\u2019t understand why being an actor and having an opinion are two opposite things. I\u2019m an artiste, I pay taxes here, I\u2019m a citizen of this country\u2026 whatever happens in the country affects my work directly. I feel as an actor I should have an opinion. I believe in the policy of live and let live. If I have an opinion, it doesn\u2019t mean you need to have the same opinion as well. I don\u2019t judge people for not speaking up, for the choices they make or choosing to stay silent. I do judge people for breaking the law. Have whatever opinion you do, but don\u2019t try to justify murder and don\u2019t normalise hate. If you have used your voice or platform to harm someone, especially a community, then I\u2019m not okay with that. It\u2019s okay if you don\u2019t want to work with someone to avoid the toxicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your take on censorship and the hike in ban culture?
I do not believe in censorship. The legacy of censorship in India is very problematic because those laws were made by the British colonial government to repress the voice of India during the freedom struggle. They didn\u2019t want people to go out there and demand freedom. That is literally the origin of censorship in India. So I don\u2019t understand why these laws still exist and why do we have to bear the burden of our colonial past even now. I believe in certification. Yes, there is content that children shouldn\u2019t watch. It\u2019s only meant for adults. It\u2019s terrible that censorship is happening in our country and of course, it is politicised. It is a bad sign for democracy because you don\u2019t know what you\u2019ll say that will hurt someone. In the last six months, every other week there is a new controversy where people are trying to ban content. That is such a terrible sign for us as a modern society. We\u2019ve also become too petty as a society. One of the biggest conditions for good art and creativity to flourish is the freedom and safety of your thoughts and expressions. If you make our creativity criminal and if people can go to jail for having a certain expression, then we have to go back to the nonsense formula of filmmaking with item numbers, cars flying and the same old storyline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you feel about escapist cinema compared to realistic stories?
It is fine to have escapist cinema but one day they\u2019ll come to control our fantasies also. If you can\u2019t crack a joke today, one day they\u2019ll tell you, you can\u2019t dream a dream. Your fantasies will hurt their sentiments. No genre is problematic. Look at Avatar. It is a prime example of cinema that can be called escapist but look at the kind of critique it is making of authoritarianism, capitalism and the American foreign policy. So the problem is not the genre but the mentality we have as a society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How was it working with Shabana Azmi and Divya Dutt in Sheer Qorma?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shabana ji and Divya ma\u2019am are two of my most favourite actors in the industry. Shabana ji is an inspiration for me and she\u2019s someone I\u2019ve always looked upto. So when\u00a0I heard that they both were going to be in the film, I didn\u2019t care what it was about, I knew\u00a0I wanted to be in it. I was okay if I had one line, I would still go ahead and say it. To share screen space with Shabana ji\u00a0after ten years of my career, I feel fulfilled. It\u2019s\u00a0a lovely film with great performances and Shabana ji and Divya ma\u2019am are both in great form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What next on your plate?
I have started shooting for my next film Jahan Chaar Yaar which is a fun story of four housewives from a small town in Uttar Pradesh who decide to take a vacation to Goa. It stars my \u2018veere\u2019 Shikha Talsania, Meher Vij and Pooja Chopra. Fingers crossed, this year I\u2019m also planning to turn producer. There\u2019s something I\u2019ve written and I\u2019m trying to make sure that it goes on the floor. So it\u2019s going to be a busy year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swara Bhasker is one actress who has happily hopped onto the OTT bandwagon and is reaping rich benefits. While others were sitting idle and baking banana bread during the lockdown, Swara had four web series out on OTT. And she isn\u2019t averse to taking risk or shying away from something risque as long as it …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11671,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[678],"class_list":["post-11670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment-news","tag-swara-bhasker"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11672,"href":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11670\/revisions\/11672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zaanews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}