After donning the hat of an assistant director on films like Mary Kom (2014) and Bajirao Mastani (2015), Sharmin Segal Mehta marked her acting debut with Malaal (2019), a Sanjay Leela Bhansali production. However, contrary to popular beliefs, she tells News18 Showsha that she never assisted her uncle on Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013). In an exclusive conversation with us, she reveals feeling not worthy and ‘deserving’ enough of working with the filmmaker on the Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone starrer.
She tells us, “I could’ve worked in Ram-Leela but I felt like I didn’t deserve that chance of assisting Sanjay Leela Bhansali at that point. I was completely new and I knew nothing about filmmaking. So, I thought of hanging around in the back on the sets of Mary Kom and see what I can pick up, understand and take away and then maybe I could go to assist Sanjay sir with something.”
So, how did Mary Kom happen to her? “The first film I assisted him on was Bajirao Mastani but the first film I ever assisted was on Mary Kom. And while I was working on Mary Kom, he was shooting for Ram-Leela. I basically told him that I would want to work in films but I know nothing about them. Mary Kom was my first job and I received my first salary while working on it. It was Rs 7,500,” she reveals.
For her portrayal of Alamzeb in Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, Sharmin has been at the receiving end of incessant trolling on social media. What added to it is the nepotistic nature of showbiz – the fact that she’s related to Bhansali. But seems like she has always been aware of the privileges of being Bhansali’s niece. “I couldn’t be waking up one day and just saying that I want to assist Sanjay Leela Bhansali. I recognised that it’s a privilege to do it. And from Mary Kom to Heeramandi, what a journey it has been!”
While the Priyanka Chopra Jonas starrer was the first film she ever worked on, Sharmin tells us that the first set she ever visited was Khamoshi: The Musical (1996) which marked her uncle’s debut as a director. But it was the shoot of Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Ajay Devgn’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) that she has vivid memories of. “The first set I ever visited was perhaps Khamoshi when I was zero-years-old (laughs),” she says.
The 28-year-old further continues, “I think I was born when the film was being shot. I’ve recollections from the shoots of Saawariya (2007) and Devdas (2002) and even Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. I was four-years-old and I would just keep picking up props from the set of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam in the middle of the shoot and run away with them! In fact, Aishwarya Rai was my first Bollywood crush from the time of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas.”
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