Swara Bhasker on Jahaan Chaar Yaar: ‘The role that I play is going to be very different from my public image’

Actor Swara Bhasker known for her outspokenness will be seen a very new avatar in Jahaan Chaar Yaar. In an interview with Firstpost, she says that she will be playing a conservative girls role which is very different from her real image. For the first time we get to see four married women from a small city going on a road trip. It took nearly ninety years for women playing the protagonist and this could happen only with OTT coming in. The digital platform has given birth to new stars whether it is Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Jaideep Ahlawat, Jitendra Kumar.

Excerpts from the interview:

On the film Jahaan Chaar Yaar…

It’s a friendship road trip movie. Bollywood have had many of these coming of age films on road trip and friendship films in the past. But it is the first time that you are going to see a road trip film where the four main protagonist are married housewives from middle class small town. In a derogatory manner they are quoted as behenjis. It is the first time that a Bollywood film is portraying these behenjis or auntes in a really fun, unexpected, entertaining way with a little bit of mirchi in it.

On your character and preparation for the role…

The writer director Kamal Pandey has written the script with such honesty, empathy and intimate knowledge on how marriage can change your entire identity. So, the role that I ended up doing is something that I have never done so far in my career because here I play the role of the most conservative girl in the group. And her whole life revolves around the fact that her husband is going to get angry. She just can’t do anything without taking permission from her husband. It was a very different thing for me because so far I have always done very flamboyant, strong roles. With Jahaan Chaar Yaar, I get to play a more vulnerable character and also I saw in terms of my public persona and my Twitter image and people always introduce me as an outspoken and bold actor. I sometimes hate being called bold. I feel I am just doing my job and when people ask me questions, I just answer them honestly. So, what is outspoken about it. This role that I play is going to be very different from my public image. And the challenge to me was will I be able to pull it off well or not.

On women roles changing and now we have four women playing protagonist, how has OTT helped in this process?

 I think it is great. It took about 90 years for this change to happen. Finally, you have started seeing the female character as someone who is confused, complex and has shades of grey in them. It is real finally that we are seeing these and these flaws which we could only see in our male heroes till a few years back. Women were shown to be pious and pure. We just had the different versions of the mother whore. I think writing began to change in the last ten years and this has happened because of various reasons. The audiences have become exposed to different world of cinema.

With OTT coming in and with more women started writing and it’s free on censorship so the way we look at woman’s roles has changed too. OTT has given us the freedom and at the larger social level the changes that happened contributed to bigger changes in cinema.

How has OTT changed your life?

OTT has given a platform for all actors, not just me. It was because of OTT that I got to play many interesting characters which I wouldn’t have got to play on screen. It gave a spot in the sun to so many talented actors who probably didn’t have the chance to show their talent on screen and has given birth to new stars whether it is Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Jaideep Ahlawat, Jitendra Kumar.

On Boycott Bollywood…

It’s a nuisance and creating a negative publicity. It is agenda driven and makes more noise than reality and creates a hype. My question to these trollers is that why are we not talking about the Four Hit films this year and only Laal Singh Chaddha and Rakshbandhan which failed at the box office.

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