Sanjay Leela Bhansali moves Richa away, pulls Sharmin closer at Heeramandi event; Reddit compares him to Karan Johar

Starring Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sharmin Segal, Richa Chadha, and Sanjeeda Shaikh in the leading roles, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar has received mixed reviews from audiences and critics. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali in his streaming debut, the show premiered on Netflix on May 1.

Ahead of its premiere, Heeramandi held its grand premiere in Mumbai in April last week. Apart from the show's cast and crew, multiple celebrities such as Salman Khan, Alia Bhatt, Rashmika Mandanna, Karan Johar, Ananya Panday, Vijay Varma, and Vicky Kaushal among others were seen at the gala event. 

Now, a video from the Heeramandi premiere is going viral in which Bhansali is seen posing with Manisha, Sonakshi, Aditi, and Sharmin, and a few other actors. As Richa comes and greet them, the filmmaker is first seen greeting her but then pushing her away to pull his niece Sharmin closer to him. Shared on the popular Reddit sub BollyBlindsNGossip, the video has now gone viral in context to the reviews that the show has received. The audiences and critics have criticised Sharmin's performance and she is being called out the weakest link in the show. On the other hand, Richa's performance is being called as the show's highlight, even though she just appears in two episodes of the eight-part series. 

Sharing their reactions to the clip, netizens on Reddit are comparing Sanjay Leela Bhansali with Karan Johar, who is often being called out for his alleged favouritism towards star kids. One netizen wrote, "Even KJo won't get this low", while another added, "Bhansali is Karan Johar with better aesthetic sense and way more flops." "Kjo and Alia and SLB and Sharmin.. hope SLB doesn't start his own show to glorify how great actor Sharmin is", read another comment.

SLB greeting Richa and then moving her aside to make sure his niece is in the spotlight next to him
byu/MogamboKiMummy inBollyBlindsNGossip

Coming back to Heeramandi, the Netflix show is a fictional tale based around the lives of tawaifs in Lahore's red-light area of Heeramandi in pre-independent India. It also stars Shekhar Suman, Adhyayan Suman, Farida Jalal, Fardeen Khan, and Taha Shah Badussha in supporting roles.

READ | This film bombed at box office, producer lost crores, director quit filmmaking, now listed in greatest films ever made

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