India, Sept. 1 -- The controversial jauhar scene in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmaavat has returned to the spotlight after Swara Bhasker revisited her criticism of the sequence nearly nine years after the film's release.

Speaking at an event in Delhi, Swara recalled watching the climax, in which Deepika Padukone's Rani Padmavati leads hundreds of women towards the flames as Alauddin Khilji's forces approach Chittor. Swara questioned what the sequence could communicate to women who survive sexual violence and said she found the depiction deeply troubling.

Her remarks have once again divided opinion, with some defending the scene as a portrayal of women exercising agency in the face of capture, while others have questioned whether presenti...