Education, both in formal institutional settings and at home, has been empowering for me. I was studying in Jawaharlal Nehru University and had some friends who often told me that if they hadn’t come to the university to study, their highest parameter of success was to open a kirana (grocery) shop back home in their small town. Now I find these very people doing postdoctoral research in the U.K. This is why education is such a contested site; it is where silent transformations can take place.
The years studying English literature at Delhi University’s Miranda House exposed me to some radical feminist ideas. I also understood why feminism is so misunderstood. The people we are fighting against are not nameless Britishers, some factory owners, or politicians but the people we love the most: our fathers, brothers, boyfriends, husbands...
My professor-mother Ira Bhaskar and father Uday Bhaskar, who worked for the Indian Navy, are both equally feminist. My mother has never worn her politics on her sleeve. She grew up on middle class values and took on her husband’s surname. But when she got an opportunity to go to New York University for a PhD, she left her two children with her husband and went away. This decision was presented to us as something to be proud of. No wonder then that my parents have treated my brother and me equally. They have been extremely supportive of my choice to be an actor though the film industry is well known for being sexist and feudal.
Balancing act So, how do I reconcile with something that is against my grain and upbringing? I turn down vulgar film offers and fairness cream advertisements but there are times when I have to make compromises too. I definitely had a problem with the misogyny in my film Raanjhanaa and pointed that out to the writers. Even Prem Ratan Dhan Payo operated within a socially conservative world. But then I made up for it by doing Tanu Weds Manu , I am doing Nil Battey Sannata which touches upon the issue of education. Up next is Anarkali Aarawali where I play an orchestra performer who sings sexually explicit songs. At times, the films we do can also make us understand the world around us better. I play a maid in Nil Battey Sannata and realised the precarious existence they lead. Their job is to go into people’s homes and make their lives comfortable but have no real safeguards for themselves.
Protests There are ways to protest. Once, I had a huge fight on a film set with an actor who threw tea on a spot boy’s face. I refused to shoot until he apologised. Another time, I was working on a film which had a dialogue, “ Kutte aur Bangladeshi kahin bhi ghus jaate hain [Dogs and Bangladeshis can enter anywhere].” I told the writer that it was offensive and it was eventually taken out of the script. Amidst the information poverty in this industry, you do find intelligent people who are willing to hear you out.
The contentious issue of pay parity between male and female actors is easily resolvable if a number of big actresses decide to put their foot down. But we have to also consider the factors of time and labour. If a female actor has shot only for 40 days and the male actor for 200 days, she cannot expect to be paid the same amount. As more films begin to revolve around women and as female actors turn producers, I am confident that things will change.
Now that I am in the film industry, I cannot be rigid in my feminism. I have to make tough choices. In the industry I am judged by what I wear. If I want to be taken seriously, I have to hire a team of stylists. It’s an occupational hazard. But it’s not as though I am any less of a feminist.
Let me be honest — I might do a franchise film like Golmaal if it comes my way. Eventually we are all in Mumbai to become bigger stars, not better actors. But I am also uncomfortable with the fact that when you are a celebrity, you are afraid to take a stand because of the possible backlash. If you stay silent and allow things to happen around you, you become complicit. Then you can’t point fingers at anyone. We have to break our silence.
(Swara Bhaskar is a Hindi film actor. She spoke to Chintan Girish Modi.)
