Swara Bhaskar talks of her journey in Bollywood as an outsider KATHMANDU: Bollywood actress Swara Bhaskar is a force to reckon with. Seven years in the industry and she has gained critical acclaim as an actress be it for her supporting roles in Raanjhanaa, Tanu Weds Manu series or  Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, or in her unconventional leading roles in Nil Battey Sannata and Anaarkali of Aarah. And it has been a wholesome journey, says Bhaskar who is in Nepal. Her films and the kind of actor that she is has landed her in Nepal — she was a part of South Asian Women’s Fund’s Annual Regional Convergence — Plenary on Autonomy and Sexuality in an Environment of Radicalisation on July 15; her film Anaarkali of Aarah, which touches the issue of women’s consent to touch her irrespective of who she is, was screened at the event. “I am an outsider to the industry (Bollywood). I don’t have any relatives in the industry. Our industry in that sense is quite feudal — it is very relationship-based,” she expresses without bitterness. As such it has been “me and my own climbing every step of the ladder slowly” like the tortoise in hare and tortoise story. “Slow and steady,” she put it. “I had to find smaller roles, smaller films and slowly walk my way up to films like Nil Battey Sannata and Anaarkali of Aarah.” A film buff, Bhaskar who grew up watching Chitrahaar debuted in 2010 with Madholal Keep Walking, which didn’t garner her recognition; then went on to do supporting roles in Tanu Weds Manu and Raanjhanaa among others that got her noticed slowly. This journey has been fun and difficult in parts, she shares but holds no grudges or regrets. Because this has made her who she is. “I am the actor that I am because of the past that I have. I am the actor that I am because I am not from within the industry,” Bhaskar explains. This is not a judgement and adds, “If I had been from within the industry, I would have been a different kind of actor.” She might not have relatives recommending her for films but she believes she has “work recommending me, audience recommending me. I have praises from the viewers”. But wherever she comes from, she values all parts of her journey, whether it is her childhood or where she studied and what work she did. And as a graduate in English Literature and post-graduate in Sociology, “I bring my sense of literary criticism to the scripts I read. I bring my understanding of sociological hierarchy, how characters live in social context to the character works I do when I am preparing for a role.” Her roles expand from small budget films to big budget films and they are great. She shares she has been lucky even in the supporting roles she did: “I have had great roles — roles that people have remembered me for like Bindiya in Raanjhanaa or Payal in Tanu Weds Manu series.” Another great role is Anaarkali of Anaarkali of Aarah. “It is almost like a superhero story set in today’s time. It is the story of this amazing woman, of her amazing journey — it is the quintessential classic good versus evil, the weak but good person’s victory over the powerful but evil. It is an inspiring story,” she says of the character. The character of Anaarkali, as per her is “never seen in Bollywood take on a female protagonist who is so unapologetic about her sexuality, so shameless, so open about the fact that she is perhaps promiscuous and she doesn’t care”. It is one of the important reasons why she took on the role. It is “the first time Bollywood has done a film where debate is not over the victim was a ‘bechari’, she was a poor thing, she was a good girl, her moral was correct ... It is the first time a Bollywood film has said: ‘Okay she was a s**t, okay she was characterless, buy your moral parameters ...’” If you want longevity as an actor in Bollywood, she shares you have to break the commercial space where audiences lie. She likes to make a balance of the two. “For every big commercial film like Raanjhanaa or Prem Ratan Dhan Payo or Tanu Weds Manu series, I am getting say 500 people for Nil Battey Sannata or 1,000 people who will remember me from those films and say, ‘Oh that actress’ Anaarkali of Aarah is coming. Let’s watch that’.” As an actor Bhaskar likes all kinds of films as she thinks “we are like performers, quintessential nautanki people — we should be able to do everything”. But the actor who will be seen in Veere Di Wedding alongside Kareena Kapoor among others points out, “If it is a well written role that gives you chance to perform, it doesn’t’ matter if it is lead or not.”