Swara Bhasker says she ‘can’t even post a photo of a flower without people linking it to masturbation’

Actor Swara Bhasker said that even though she gets nasty comments online, some of which are akin to ‘cyber sexual harassment’, she refuses to succumb to it. During a recent Twitter Spaces chat, she opened up about how trolls link every post of hers to her masturbation scene in Veere Di Wedding.

Swara took to Instagram to share an excerpt from her Twitter Spaces conversation. “Social media is a [virtual] public space like roads & restaurants are, but the public decency and basic social etiquette maintained offline are absent online. I can’t even post a photo of a flower without people linking it to masturbation or referencing ‘ungli’ (finger) after Veere Di Wedding came out.”

“It’s ugly and amounts to cyber sexual harassment but I feel very strongly about not succumbing to online bullying or limiting my presence online because of it. We cannot cede the virtual public space to hate, bigotry and bullying,” she added. She captioned her post, “Speak your truth. Stand your ground.”

Earlier this year, as Veere Di Wedding completed three years of its release, Swara gave a shout-out to trolls and claimed that her masturbation scene in the film provided them with employment. “3 YEARS (June 01) to the birth of an obsession – my nafrati chintus obsession with my fingers! Happy 3rd to the film that gave rise to an economy: the two rupees per tweet employment guarantee scheme that it seems I launched for my trolls #veerediwedding #sakshislays,” she wrote on Twitter, adding that she was ‘grateful’ to have been a part of the film.

Swara will be seen next in a short film titled Sheer Qorma, in which she stars alongside Divya Dutta and Shabana Azmi. The same-sex love story, directed by Faraz Arif Ansari, has been screened at several film festivals globally but is yet to be released in India.