'Character had a lot of scope but...': Sharmin Segal's 'Heeramandi' co-star agrees with criticism

Indian actor Jason Shah of ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’ agrees with the trolls on co-star Sharmin Segal’s expressionless performance.

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Indian film and TV actor Jason Shah, who essayed Alastair Cartwright in SLB’s much-anticipated web series, spoke about his working experience with co-stars including Sharmin Segal aka Alamzeb, and offered an agreement with social media trolls on her ‘one tone’ performance.

He said, “I feel there should have been higher escalations of emotions in different places. I remember Sanjay sir also saying on sets to not act from here (mind), act from here (heart) to Sharmin and another actor alongside her [Taha Shah].”

“But I don’t know maybe that is what they wanted from her. Maybe that is the one tone they were looking for from this character, that is again the director’s call,” Shah added.

When further quizzed if this is what was expected out of her character, the ‘Fitoor’ actor maintained, “Maybe mujhe aisa lagta hai agar nahi hai, bola nahi gya (if it wasn’t directed) to keep it one tone, then I felt the character had a lot of scope and space to do a lot of things. Jo mujhey laga nahi aaya (which I feel didn’t come through) but again I am not the director.”

Pertinent to note here that Segal has been dubbed the weakest link in the ensemble cast of ‘Heeramandi’ and viewers questioned Bhansali for casting her in a lengthy role, only because of her relation to him.

Many of her co-stars including Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha and Shekhar Suman came to Segal’s rescue after she faced brutal trolling across social media.

For the unversed, Segal is the niece of the veteran filmmaker, who also assisted him on blockbusters like ‘Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela’, ‘Bajirao Mastani’ and ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’, before making her on-screen debut in his production ‘Malaal’.

Meanwhile, the eight-part Netflix series ‘Heeramandi’ of veteran filmmaker Bhansali, follows six courtesans, essayed by Sonakshi Sinha, Sharmin Segal, Richa Chadha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Manisha Koirala and Sanjeeda Sheikh, and their lives in the red-light district of Lahore.

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