Popular Bollywood actress, Richa Chadha recently reacted to the massive backlash that her 'Heeramandi' co-star and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's niece, Sharmin Segal has been facing.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum opus, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, was released on May 1, 2024, on Netflix. Since the release of the series, it has become a topic of discussion on social media, be it the grandeur of the sets or the acting of the star-studded cast. While the majority of the cast has been lauded for their performances, it’s Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s niece, Sharmin Segal, who has been the subject of intense scrutiny. She faced immense criticism for her role as ‘Alamzeb’ in the eight-episode series.
Now, Sharmin’s co-star, Richa Chadha, who plays ‘Lajjo’ in Heeramandi, has come out in support of her, amidst the immense backlash she has been facing ever since the series was released on the streaming giant. The negativity regarding Sharmin’s acting has gone to such an extent that it has now turned into bullying. Richa took to her Instagram stories and shared a screenshot of an X (formerly Twitter) post and penned:
“For the past month, whenever I have been able to keep track and be vigilant enough, I have been deleting negative comments about a co-star that appear in my comments. Guys? Offer constructive criticism, but this much visceral hate? It’s one thing to reject someone’s performance, theek hai! Mat karo pasand, aapka haq hai.”
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Further in the note, Richa asked people not to take a few interview clips, that too from a roast video, out of context. The actress also requested people to be kind to her co-star as it can affect her mental health. She said that people should move on from this and focus on more pressing issues like the heat wave and election. In her words:
“Par aise chatkare le ke troll to mat karo? Please? Out-of-context interview clips (that too from a legit roast, y'all are using). Why? I know it’s tempting to jump on a trend, but to make another human being clickbait? I think we can all do better than that, be better than that. Be kind. Please. It can affect someone's mental health. A big election just happened, there’s a heat wave on, there’s so much going on in the world! Please move on.”
A Reddit user shared a screenshot of Richa’s note on the discussion platform and other users have been reacting to the same. One user said, “Someone as talentless as Sharmin gets so much support from the film industry, no doubt they treat RK and alia like some God's gifts to mankind.” Another one wrote, “I mean what Richa said isn’t unreasonable. She probably doesn’t want a bunch of hate comments on her posts about one of her co-workers. Think she much rather prefers the attention to be on her work instead.” Meanwhile, a third netizen penned, “Producer Sharmin sehgal ko defend toh karna padega after all She is going to be the lead and will be producing next season too.”
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Previously, during an interview with News18 Showsha, Sharmin opened up about the immense criticism she has been facing for her performance in Heeramandi. The actress said that earlier she would not look at the reviews, but later, she realised that she was leaving behind the love as well. Hence, she decided to check reviews and all she found was constructive criticism. In her words:
“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. There was a point when I was not looking at many things [reviews], but then slowly, I realised 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 decided to look through it all. I saw positivity, constructive criticism, and a whole range of feedback and that’s what happens when you put yourself out there as an artist or an actor.”
What do you think of Richa Chadha’s support for her Heeramandi co-star, Sharmin Segal?
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