Actress Richa Chadha has lambasted trolls for picking on Sharmin Segal, saying heavy trolling with “out-of-context interview clips” are liable to affect the mental health of her Heeramandi co-actress.

The actress on Thursday took to her Instagram stories to say that she has been deleting all negative comments about Sharmin from her social media. She also urged people to come up with constructive criticism.

“For the past month, whenever I have been able to keep track and vigilant enough, I have been deleting negative comments about my co-star that have been appearing in my comments. Guys? Offer constructive criticism, but this much visceral hate?” she wrote.

The actress also mentioned that while she is okay with someone openly criticising an actor’s performance, she absolutely hates trolling with “out-of-context interview clips”.

“It's one thing to reject someone's performance, theek hai! Mat karo pasand, aapka haq hai. Par aise chatkare le ke troll to mat karo (It is okay to dislike it because that is your wish. But please stop trolling so heavily)? Please? Out-of-context interview clips (that too from a legit roast, y'all are using). Why?” she wrote.

Richa also requested people to be kind and not jump on the bandwagon to reduce Sharmin to a “human clickbait”.

“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?” she signed off.

Sharmin, who is Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s niece, plays the role of Alamzeb in the filmmaker’s Netflix period drama Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. She is being heavily trolled by netizens following the release of the period drama web series, with many of them dubbing the young actress as a nepo kid, prompting her to turn off the comments section on Instagram.

Marking Bhansali’s OTT debut, Heeramandi follows the stories of love, passion, freedom and betrayal experienced by courtesans living in Lahore’s oldest red-light district. It has recently been renewed for a second season.

Set against the backdrop of British-ruled India, the web series also stars Manisha Koirala, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sonakshi Sinha and Sanjeeda Shaikh.