Since the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Heeramandi : The Diamond Bazaar’ , actress Sharmin Segal has been the talk of the town. The actress, who is also the niece of the filmmaker, has been constantly trolled for her portrayal of Alamzeb in the series.
She has been criticized and has become a subject of many memes, for her “expressionless” acting and rude behaviour in interviews towards her ‘Heeramandi’ co-stars.
After a month of the show’s debut, Sharmin Segal finally addressed the backlash in an interview with News18. Sharmin said, “I had given my all to Alamzeb’s character. We tend to fixate on the negatives but there are so many positives that have also come along, which we don’t talk about. It’s perhaps not interesting enough to talk about the positives and we tend to look over them to some degree.”
The ‘Malaal’ actress had been avoiding conversations about her character and had also disabled her comments due to the intensified backlash until a few days ago.
“There was a point when I was not looking at many things but then slowly I realized that I was also missing out on a lot of love that I was getting. I’ve now started paying attention to that. Over the last few days, I’ve decided to look through it all,” she added.
Further, Sharmin has also appreciated the feedback that she has received, from positivity to constructive criticism. “As a creative person, it is really important to acknowledge that the audience is the king at the end of the day. The audience’s opinion is what will probably help you be the best version of herself,” the 28-year-old actress concluded.
Before Sharmin, many of her co-stars and others associated with the series had also commented on the ongoing trolling. Defending Sharmin, uncle Sanjay Leela Bhansali said, “She has a face of what Alamzeb should be – somebody who doesn’t want to be a tawaif or has no makings of it. So, I felt that Sharmin was the correct choice for Alamzeb.”
The series, which is currently streaming on Netflix, stars Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Richa Chadha, Fardeen Khan, Taha Shah Badussha, Shekhar Suman, Adhyayan Suman, Farida Jalal, and Indresh Malik.
The pre-partition show recently announced a season 2. Confirming the news to American magazine ‘Variety’, Sanjay Leela Bhansali said, “In ‘Heeramandi 2’, the women now come from Lahore to the film world.