Farida Jalal On Sharmin Segal Being Trolled: 'Maybe That's Her Capacity; What Are You Expecting?'

Sanjay Leela Bhansali ventured into the OTT space with his highly-anticipated web series, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. One unexpected outcome of the show was the spotlight cast on his niece, Sharmin Segal, who plays Alamzeb in the gilded series. Sharmin Segal was put on the chopping block for her “expressionless” acting and “monotone” delivery. Farida Jalal recently weighed in on the matter.

Speaking to India Today, the veteran actress said, “I know, I am not happy about this. Be kind. What her capacity as an actor is, she has done her best. I don’t feel the character needs to be very boisterous and loud, the role was not like that.” Farida said that Sharmin has given her best.

She said, “What were you expecting? Yes, what you thought you needed… It’s ok, why should we be mean to the girl? Be kind, maybe that’s her capacity, just that much. I don’t think the real role was boisterous, it wasn’t. She is a shayara, she falls in love with my bacchha (Taha Shah’s character) and that’s it.”

Earlier, Adhyayan Suman also gave his two cents on the matter. Speaking to Bollywood Hungama, Adhyayan said, “I think it’s very important to not live in a bubble. It’s very important to accept any sort of reality, not just Heeramandi, per se. It’s very important to understand who you are, it’s very important to understand whether you have it in you to fight the next 15-20 years. It’s important for you to not lie to yourself.”

“If she is being criticised for her performance, she should come out and speak to people. The audiences are very gentle, they’ll give you another chance if they feel you’ve worked hard,” he added.

In an exclusive conversation with News18 Showsha, Sharmin Segal broke silence about the trolling she is facing and said, “The audience is the king at the end of the day. And as a creative person, it’s very important to acknowledge that. They have a right to their opinion – positive or negative. That’s one thing that gives me perspective and allows me to be okay.”

Sharmin said that the positive responses were as many as the negative ones and yet the internet chose to focus more on the latter. “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 positives and we tend to look over them to some degree,” she opined.