Swara Bhasker on ‘Jahaan Chaar Yaar,’ Boycott Bollywood trends, and more

As somebody who has turned her “dreams into her  zid (tenacity)”, Swara Bhasker says her convictions drive the roles she plays. “The actor I am is because of the person I am. If I was the person who got easily scared and did not speak up, I would not have done  Nil Battey Sannata, Anarkali of Aarah or Veerey Ki Wedding. My convictions not only influence what I say in public; they also influence my choice of scripts.”

The Delhi-based actor is playing a meek housewife in  Jahaan Chaar Yaar releasing this week . A fun film that puts a spin on the Bollywood staple of friends taking a road trip, Swara is excited to see the audience’s response to the movie.

Actor Swara Bhasker’s new film is releasing this week

What compelled you to do Jahaan Chaar Yaar?

Usually, the friends taking a road trip are cool, urban, rich young guys and girls. Here, the makers have put together a group of middle class housewives, who are called “behenjis”, by the more hip crowd in a coming-of-age story. I found it really cute. I liked the way the film re-appropriates the term  behenji and flips it to say how cool, badass, and sassy they can be.

Shivangi, the character I play, is a timid woman who has not been able to stand up for herself and is taken for granted by her family. I saw it as a challenge. Can I make audiences that see me as a Twitter warrior believe that the person on-screen is a meek character from a small town?

How did you hide the real Swara?

That’s the craft and fun of it. As an actor I don’t judge my characters. After  Nil Battey Sannata and  Anarkali of Aarah, Shivangi is one character I felt emotionally connected to. It reminded me of my maternal grandmother. Married at the age of 15, she used to tell me stories of life as a teenage bride married to an anglicised man, hailing from a zamindar family. A woman who didn’t move out of Varanasi suddenly had to travel to Bombay and deal with a swish set of people. She was a very devoted wife and mother.

When I read the role of Shivangi, I saw my grandmother and I channeled everything that I knew about her into the character. There is a certain kind of devotion among most South Asian women towards their families and their whole life gets swallowed up by marriage.

Tell us about Mrs. Falani that you recently signed up for?

Here I pick from where I left Shivani — I play a protagonist in each of the stories in this anthology of nine characters. Falani is taken from a colloquial word in Hindi Falani Dhikani. It is like Mrs.Etc. The film follows the small, unfulfilled desires of women in the age group between 35 and 45. The day I signed it, I started looking for theatre workshops that I could join to prep for the role.