'I'm a realist': Sharmin Segal on facing backlash for 'Heeramandi'
Sharmin Segal, the niece of renowned director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, has recently come under fire for her performance in the Netflix series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. Despite the show's success, securing impressive viewership milestones on the streamer's non-English language shows list, it has faced criticism. The show's perceived glorification of non-consensual sex and glamorization of women's suffering has been lambasted online. Segal's performance has also attracted the internet's vitriol.
Segal admitted there was a 'lot of pressure'
Segal, who played the pivotal role of Alamzeb in the series, has been the target of intense scrutiny and online trolling. This backlash reportedly led her to disabling comments on her Instagram account, too. In a recent BBC Asian Network podcast, she addressed the criticism, "There is a lot of pressure and sometimes it manifests in weird ways." She emphasized the importance of her support system, particularly crediting her sister as her strongest pillar, who was an AD on Heeramandi.
'How many people's opinions are you gonna have control over?'
Segal expressed her pragmatic view on public opinion, stating, "...I'm a realist in that way. We live in a world of 1.7B people, in India itself (this is not factual. India has a population of around 1.42B). After all, how many people's opinions are you gonna shape or have control over?" Her character Alamzeb is Shahi Mahal's matriarch Mallikajaan's (Manisha Koirala) daughter who wishes to be a poet but is being forced by her mother to debut as a courtesan.
Co-star Shruti Sharma earlier defended Segal against trolling
In response to the online trolling against Segal, her co-star Shruti Sharma, who played Saima in Heeramandi, had also spoken out. She urged people to focus on constructive criticism rather than resorting to trolling. "It is a very negative way of approaching anyone. It is a kind of mental harassment," Sharma said. While describing her working experience on the historical fiction show, Sharma revealed that shooting an intimate scene had left her with body rashes.
