Mumbai: Bollywood actor Swara Bhasker says her latest web series Rasbhari reflects important issues of society, like "hypocrisy of a repressive society and patriarchy's fundamental fear of female sexuality".
The show narrates a love story set in Meerut. Swara plays the role of a stern English teacher who is the object of attraction for Nand (Ayushmaan Saxena).
"The interesting part about the series is that it comes as a breath of fresh air on the digital platform which has a lot of dark content. While on one hand it will entertain and has a lighter vein, on the other hand it also reflects some very important issues in the society which we do not discuss aloud," Swara said.
"Like adolescent sexuality, the hypocrisy of a repressive society and patriarchy's fundamental fear of female sexuality. But all this is narrated and depicted in a fun way. I hope people enjoy it as much as I enjoyed essaying these roles," she added.
READ |Spare children in desperate need for entertainment: Prasoon Joshi calls out Rasbhari, Swara Bhasker defends show
On a related note, Prasoon Joshi had tweeted on Friday, pointing out a scene in the web series has "irresponsible content." Following which, Swara took to Twitter to explain the purpose of the scene to the CBFC Chief and pointing out that maybe he misunderstood it.
"Respected sir, maybe you are misunderstanding the scene. The way you are describing the scene, it is just the opposite. The child is dancing at her own will. Her father feels embarrassed after seeing this. The dance is not provocative. She is simply dancing and has no idea about how society will sexualise her too. This is what the scene shows. #Rashbhari," tweeted Bhasker in Hindi.
Swara's tweet came as a response to Joshi's tweet which reads: "Saddened by Webseries #Rasbhari's irresponsible content portraying a little girl child dancing provocatively in front of men drinking. Creators and audience need to seriously rethink Freedomof expression or freedom of exploitation? Let's spare children in the desperate need for entertainment."
Netizens were divided in their opinion. Commenting on the tweet, while some expressed that Joshi is misunderstanding the scene, some trolled the actor. Some users felt it is high time that web series content should be regulated by the censor board, while one user reviewed the web series Rasbhari calling it "soft porn".
The show streams on Amazon Prime Video.
With inputs from IANS
