Mumbai, September 6, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Actress Poonam Pandey has criticised Swara Bhasker over her comments on the jauhar sequence depicted in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, saying she was disappointed by the remarks from an actress she had once considered intelligent and well-educated.
Speaking exclusively to IANS, Poonam said she had previously been a fan of Swara but disagreed with her criticism of the film’s portrayal of the historical episode.
“I used to be her fan, a long time ago. Now, whatever she said… She shouldn’t have said that,” Poonam said.
She argued that Bhansali’s film was based on a historical account rather than being a fictional story.
“The makers only showed history. They didn’t make up a story. Sanjay Leela Bhansali showed a film based on history,” she said.
Expressing her strong disagreement with Swara’s comments, Poonam described them as a “very stupid thing to say” and said she had always regarded the actress as “so educated and so smart”.
Poonam also made personal remarks about Swara’s appearance while expressing her anger over the issue.
Swara recently attracted attention for her comments about the jauhar sequence in Padmaavat during the “Woman Life Freedom” talk at the India International Centre in Delhi on August 31.
Discussing the scene, Swara questioned whether its depiction could send a problematic message to survivors of sexual violence, particularly by suggesting that death could be preferable to living after sexual assault.
She argued that such a portrayal could make survivors feel that they had failed to preserve their “honour” by choosing to live, and questioned whether society should present rape as the end of a woman’s life.
Swara described the sequence as “problematic” and raised concerns about its potential impact on rape survivors in a society already grappling with sexual violence.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, released in 2018, stars Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor and is inspired by the medieval poem Padmavat by Malik Muhammad Jayasi.
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