New Delhi, Known for speaking her mind, actress Swara Bhasker, who has often been a victim of trolling and online bullying, says like any other public sphere, social media should also have a civil conduct.
Asked if social media bullying bothers her, Swara told IANS here: “It used to bother me in the beginning when it happened and I felt very hurt. I felt it was very unjust… Then I realised life is unjust. They are not doing it out of a sense of justice, but doing it from a place of viciousness, hatred or genuine malintent. So what would you do about that? They have no identity. I became inured to it.”
Swara added that “social media is a virtual public sphere and like other public spaces we should have a civil conduct on social media. It is a virtual public space”.
The 30-year-old made her debut in filmdom in 2010 with “Madholal Keep Walking”. She was then seen in “Raanjhanaa”, “Tanu Weds Manu”, “Tanu Weds Manu Returns”, “Nil Battey Sannata”, “Anaarkali of Aarah”, “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo” and “Veere Di Wedding”.
Talking about the kind of work she wants to do now, Swara said: “I am at a strange point… because after ‘Nil Battey Sannata’, ‘Anarkali’ and ‘Veere Di Wedding’, I am like ‘What should my next script be?’ I don’t know how to up that because I feel the standards have become too high for scripts. I have not signed a film after ‘Veere Di Wedding’.”
Over her nine-year-journey in Bollywood, Swara has essayed relatable characters like Chanda from “Nil Battey Sannata” or Bindiya from “Raanjhanaa”.
“I have been very lucky also with the kind of roles I have been given or that I have landed even if they have been in the supporting category or protagonist roles…. I can’t control what I am offered but I can control what I choose. So, I am very careful of what I choose.”
The actress said she is “dying” to do the movies based on dancing around the trees “but now the dancing around the trees in Switzerland is not happening. So, I feel like I am 20 years late in the industry”.
Does she aspire to do something more?
“There is a lot of stuff I still want to do and I hope that I am able to do that in whatever I do next. I think as an artiste, you can never be satisfied because satisfaction means the beginning of the death of an actor. I don’t want to be satisfied. I hope that my ambition always stays unsatiated,” she added.
So what’s next?
Swara, who featured in web series “It’s Not That Simple”, said: “I am doing very interesting work in the web space. I am very excited. I think the web space is a new space. It’s offering a lot of exciting and new work and I am holding on to my time for films because I want the next one to be very special.”
