Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Niece Sharmin Talks About Being Fat-Shamed & Bullied In School

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s niece Sharmin Segal is all set to make her Bollywood debut opposite Jaaved Jaaferi’s son Meezaan in Malaal. Recently, in an interview with a leading daily, Sharmin opened up about her struggle with her weight while growing up and how she was bullied about it in school. She said, “I was really fat for 13-14 years of my life. There were kids in school who used to make fun of me from the ages of 11-18 years until I graduated from school.”

Sharmin wanted to become a doctor but was also inclined towards getting into Bollywood. She revealed, “I took up theatre in school at the age of 17, Meezaan was in my class. I had an end-of-year performance, where they made me a man. You know how they have those caricature fat friend-type characters? Meezaan was the doctor and I was his assistant.”

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She added, “It was my first performance ever. I had never done acting before that. I looked into the audience and those three boys that used to make fun of me throughout my school life were laughing. In that moment, mujhe laga ki woh mujhpe nahi, character pe hans rahe hai. That made me feel ki acting is something special. It can make you feel like not yourself. At that moment in my life, I wanted to be anything but fat Sharmin.”

However, the actor believes that one does not necessarily need to lose weight to enter films. “People say body-shaming and all that is wrong, and you should be confident about your body, but I wasn’t. After being bullied for 15 years of my life, I wasn’t confident. People have asked me, ‘Is it wrong to be fat and an actor?’ I said, ‘No. If you are happy and confident, and you can look into a mirror in the morning and say haan main achchi lag rahi hoon, then that’s your personal choice.”

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Sharmin is currently gearing up for the release of her upcoming Malaal. Meanwhile, in an interview with a media portal, her co-star Meezaan also revealed how he never wanted to become an actor. He said, “For me, it was always either music or sports until I met Sanjay sir. He offered to launch me as an actor in Bollywood. That’s when I started thinking about acting. I have never trained for it. I never thought I would get into acting. I did martial arts, played football. I was also into swimming. I am obsessed with sports. But the day I met Sanjay sir, everything changed.”

He further revealed how he landed the role in Malaal. Meezaan said, “I had met my co-star Sharmin back in 2011 and since then we have been best friends. She was working as a costume assistant on Sanjay sir’s Bajirao Mastani. One day Ranveer sir wasn’t available, so when she asked me, I tried out his costumes for the team. That’s when I met Sanjay sir for the first time. At the time he had no idea who my father was, yet told me that he wanted to launch me.”

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Directed by Mangesh Hadawale, the story of Malaal is set in Mumbai where Shiva, a Marathi youngster from a chawl, falls in love with a north Indian. It is slated to hit the theatres on July 5.

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