Swara Bhasker Celebrates 5 Yrs of Veere Di Wedding, Says ‘It Etched 4 Imperfect Heroines’ | Exclusive

Veere Di Wedding completes five years of its release today. The film starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Swara Bhasker and Shikha Talsania released in 2018 and revolved around a bunch of friends and explored the nuances and complexities of female friendships and womanhood. On its first day, the film raked in more than Rs 10 crore at the box office and became the biggest opener for a women-centric film that had released until then. And earlier today, director Rhea Kapoor and the cast members took to social media to share their joy as they celebrated its fifth anniversary.

In an exclusive chat with News18, Swara, who played Sakshi, a no-nonsense and uninhibited woman in Veere Di Wedding, looks back at the film that won the hearts of many and became a trendsetter of sorts. She says, “Veere Di Wedding was a hugely special, landmark film not just for me personally but for Bollywood too. It was the first time in mainstream Bollywood’s 100-year history that a film was made with four women in the lead, no hero and the storyline didn’t revolve around two girls being in love with the same man!”

Bollywood had witnessed a slew of buddy films headlined by male actors but Veere Di Wedding broke the clutter by becoming one of the first commercial films to talk about women and their friendships. “The film was an unabashed celebration of friendship, from a female perspective, in an industry where normally friendship films centered around male bonding with boys in the lead. It etched four imperfect heroines, each with their own chaos and confusion and created a space where it was okay for women too, to be struggling with adulthood and making mistakes… hitherto a feature reserved for male protagonists.”

Further, it portrayed real women who despite being at their fashionable best were flawed and reminded the audience of themselves. Talking about it, Swara remarks, “Veere Di Wedding was a breath of fresh air and the best part became the huge success it turned out to be at the box office carving a path for more such fresh stories to be made!”

In the film, Swara’s Sakshi was already married but lived with her parents after moving out of her husband’s home. Interestingly, Veere Di Wedding was one of the first feature films to showcase a female actor pleasuring herself. Swara went on to receive a lot of backlash for the same. Despite all of that, Veere Di Wedding remains popular.