'Trolling is so passe...': Ushna Shah defends Sharmin Segal's underplay in 'Heeramandi'

A-list actor Ushna Shah came out in support of Bollywood starlet Sharmin Segal, defending her underplay as Alamzeb in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’.

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Taking to her official handle on X, Pakistani A-lister Ushna Shah defended Sharmin Segal’s performance as Alamzeb, in ‘Heeramandi’, and wrote, “Sharmin Segal underplayed Alamzeb but only slightly, which seems to be difficult to digest for an audience used to be a more dramatic style.”

She continued, “The character would have been butchered had she over-played it, it would have become generic.”

“She mastered the Urdu dialect better than most Hindi speaking actors & the grain in her voice was spectacular,” Shah commended Segal.

Further reviewing the acting of British actor Jason Shah, who essayed Alastair Cartwright in the series, the ‘Habs’ actor added, “The real tragedy is Cartwright not having an English accent; he was playing a British coloniser! Forget Received Pronunciation, he didn’t even bother forging a modern Brit accent? Even the English speaking Nawaabs should have had a trans-Atlantic-ish speak, similar to Jinnah, Gandhi, Nehru etc.”

Concluding her detailed review, Shah noted, “Trolling is so passe,” and added the hashtags ‘Heeramandi’ and ‘Sharmin Segal’.

For the unversed, Segal, who is the niece of Bhansali, was dubbed the weakest link in the ensemble cast of the series and viewers questioned the veteran filmmaker for casting her in the pivotal role of Alamzeb in ‘Heeramandi’, only because of her relation to him.

Meanwhile, the eight-episodic launching season of the web series ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’, co-starring Segal with Richa Chadha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha and Sanjeeda Sheikh in main roles, along with Farida Jalal, Fardeen Khan, Shekhar and Adhyayan Suman, and Taha Shah, is currently streaming on Netflix.

The series has been renewed for season 2 on the streaming platform.

Indian TV actors mock Sharmin Segal with ‘Heeramandi’ mimicry – Watch