Tamannaah Bhatia, in a sit-down with The Lallantop, didn’t shy away from the controversy that’s followed her and Prabhas since that infamous scene in SS Rajamouli’s ‘Baahubali: The Beginning.’
The scene where Prabhas’ Shivudu strips Avantika (Tamannaah’s character) and dabs her with natural stuff, supposedly to remind her of a femininity she’d forgotten. People called it out for being tone-deaf about consent.
Tamannaah Bhatia opens up about Baahubali scene with Prabhas
When the conversation turned to an article literally titled ‘The Rape of Avantika,’ Tamannaah defended the intent behind the sequence and got into some bigger societal issues. She didn’t mince words: “Here’s how I see it. When people can’t control you, they use shame and guilt as their weapon. They make you feel embarrassed about whatever you do, and the moment you start believing it, they’ve got you.” It’s a pretty blunt take, honestly—she sees shame as just another way society tries to keep people in line.
Tamannaah also called out what she sees as major hypocrisy in Indian culture. She pointed out that society loves to side-eye the very thing that literally creates life. “In our country, people look down on the process that brought every one of us into the world. If our parents hadn’t come together, none of us would be here. Yet we treat it as something dirty and taboo. We’re so repressed,” she said.
She seemed genuinely baffled by how something so basic gets treated like it’s shameful.
Tamannaah Bhatia reveals what leaves her frustrated
She went further, saying: “The purest thing gets seen in the dirtiest way. That attitude makes us all hide and not talk about it, like it’s something to be ashamed of.” It’s the kind of contradiction that clearly frustrates her.
When it comes to films and criticism, Tamannaah says people are quick to judge without getting the director’s vision. “Everyone wants to make you feel like you’ve done something wrong. But this is the most basic thing in life! That’s why we exist. I still don’t get why, when you see a movie, people forget it’s the director’s vision,” she said, sounding genuinely confused by the outrage.
Tamannaah Bhatia recalls Rajamouli explaining the scene
She even recalled Rajamouli explaining the scene to her. According to Tamannaah, he described Avantika as “the divine feminine, wounded, beautiful, and longing for love, but so hardened by life that she pushes everyone away.”
The sequence, Rajamouli said, was about Shivudu trying to show her she’s still beautiful—helping her reconnect with the softer parts of herself she’d buried.
Tamannaah explained the visual storytelling: “If you have to show this visually, there’s a whole sequence—she puts on bangles, a bindi, she sees her own face and realizes, ‘I’d made myself so tough, I lost my softness somewhere.’ And then Shiva’s character helps her find it again.” That was the director’s intention, at least, according to her.
In the end, Tamannaah made it clear that how people interpret a scene depends a lot on their own baggage and perspective.
