Sharmin Segal saw acting in films as an opportunity to break out of her body type. By Team Viva
Most star kids might assume that acting is something that they are meant to do by virtue of their genes. But Sharmin Segal, daughter of singer Baba Sehgal and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s niece, saw it as a reason for not wanting to be fat and keeping fit. “I wanted to be someone else and not Sharmin Segal. I was not comfortable in my own skin. Everybody told me that I have to get thin and fit if I want to be an actor else I would be stereotyped and typecast. I’ll be pressured for being fat,” says the actor who makes her debut with Malaal opposite Meezaan Jaffery, actor Jaaved Jaffery’s son.
The film is a remake of the 2004 Tamil film 7G Rainbow Colony and follows the contemporary love story of Astha and Shiva, who are from contrasting backgrounds and live in a Mumbai chawl.
She agrees that stereotyping exists in the industry, which believes that an actress should be thin, beautiful and fit but it is true outside as well. She says, “This is called body shaming. You are telling me that there’s no stereotyping of a fat best friend. It happens often.”
She points out that while actors like Vidya Balan and Huma Qureshi are comfortable with their body shape, “I didn’t have the mental ability to deal with it because of the immense amount of body shaming. I admire the two actresses for being happy in their own skin. But I want to experience everything that acting has to offer by fitting into multiple characters of differing shape, size and colour. People do stereotype in our industry for being fat, one cannot deny it. If you want to get past it, people need to start writing better scripts.”
Of course, examples in the industry abound where star kids ranging from Sonam Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor and Sarah Ali Khan lost weight in order to be a part of the industry but Sharmin quotes one from outside, “Tell me? Did Bhumi (Pednekar) not lose weight? Did she continue to be fat even after the blockbuster film, Dum Laga Ke Haisha? No, right? She did lose her weight. Why did she do it? She could have stayed fat,” she says.
However, it was not just to do with being a part of the industry, it was also to do with her own sense of self-worth. “I felt that a boy would never kiss me or love me. I am more confident now. People are not laughing at me for being fat. But to tell you the truth, sometimes in my mind I am still fat. I am still uncomfortable when people look at me and laugh. Sometimes I look in the mirror and I think I am fat,” she says.
Coming to the film, the reason why Sharmin and we are meeting, she says that while acting, “I had to rely on Sanjay sir to give me references. I used to ask him that this is what I have, can you tell me in one sentence what’ll make it better. And he was always there whenever I needed him. Because Mangesh (director) sir was very much involved in Shiva (Meezan’s character),” she says. For her role, she didn’t take any references for the heroines that have peopled Bhansali’s films. “Astha (her character) is not as complex as any of Sanjay’s sir characters which usually have a lot more back story. My character is very subtle and simple,” she says.
(The film releases on July 5.)
Photo: Pankaj Kumar