Shefali, in this interview with indianexpress.com, talks about her journey, rejecting stereotyped roles that were being offered to her and eventually ruling the streaming scene where she is essaying one power packed character after another. Her last film Jalsa, with Vidya Balan, was appreciated by the audience. The actor now plays Shamshu with Alia Bhatt in Darlings. Talking about the phase, Shefali says, “It has been quite exciting, very exciting, and thank God, der aaye durust aaye.
The actor, however, adds that even if the roles were not age-appropriate earlier, they were meaty. She says, “These were meaty roles, and they were my choices. What would I do, or what should have I done otherwise, I do not know. At that point of time I thought that was right. Shefali at that age thought it was correct and she did it. There is no point in going back and thinking I could’ve made it better or I could’ve changed the course of my career. I could not, and that’s a fact.”
She goes on to add, “And now, I am here today and there is no point in diminishing what I have or what I’m doing today by worrying about something that is long gone. So, I am loving this phase in my career.”
Shefali might be a popular choice for leading roles for many OTT projects today, but none of it was planned. These roles came to her after she decided to wait for the right assignments instead of doing everything that was offered to her.
“I’ve never planned my career. There is no math that goes in my head when I pick a script. A script has to churn me inside out. A role has to really excite me, shake me up and hit me hard for me to say yes. I think, at that point in my life, what I did was, more than doing the work I did, was that I made a choice of waiting. A lot of people must have thought it is was quite a ridiculous choice, people in my house used to say things like, ‘you could work everyday and be a star in your own space, but you just keep saying no’, but if something doesn’t excite me, I’m going to say no. Just because I have to go to work or because I have to make money or just because I have to be in news, I can’t do it. I’m glad I’ve made those choices and took the chance of waiting,” Shefali shares.
About being grateful for the kind of projects she is being offered, and how she chooses these roles out of instinct, she shares, “My choices has come out of instinct, and it has not failed me. There are no boxes that I tick mark. And, of course then there has been this OTT boom which has just enriched all creative people’s lives, not just actors. The boom has helped recognise great writers, musicians, sound designers, costume designers, everything. This has really put emphasis on creators as well as consumers of content. I’m an avid watcher, so every day is like ‘I’ve to watch this’, or ‘Oh my God, I’m missing out on this’, so it is an exciting time for me as an actor and as someone who watches the content that is being made out there, and I am so glad this has finally happened. I have to give the credit, of where I stand today, it is thanks to Delhi Crime, it is because of Netflix, I’ve to give the credit where it is due.”
Darlings is her next film and she is excited for it, because the role of Shamshu is closest to how she is in actual life, she says. “Darlings is a fantastic script, and it is a very important topic. It is dealt with so much humour and sensitivity and is poignant. It is wicked, the character that I play, I’ve never played a character like that before. I loved Shamshu the moment I read her, I thought she was a cracker.”
Does it help that the director of Darlings is a woman, specially because the film deals with domestic violence. On this, she says, “Female filmmakers bring their own special self to the project, but I don’t think it has to do anything with gender, it’d be very unfair. I’ve had the pleasure and honour of working with a lot of female film directors, whether it is Mira (Nair), or Zoya (Akhtar), or Jasmeet (Reen) or Anubhuti (Kashyap) who I’ve done another film with. But they’re just sensible, sensitive, creative people and that’s their contribution. I’ve worked with men who are equally sensitive and creative and passionate. They’re very intricate with their storytelling, their characters.”
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Most of Shefali’s films and shows have been intense and some even grey, but now Shefali also wants to loosen it up and do some comedies. She says, “I am an actor, I want to do different kind of stuff. But, I could not have said no to anything that was offered to me in the recent times. I’m very proud of being a part of those projects. But I want to do (comedies). Darlings was a delight when it came to me. I was a glad somebody saw me in that role. Because of the work that I’ve done, when people meet me, a lot of them have told me that they were intimidated by me. People thought I am very serious because of the work that I’ve done recently. But once they know me they know that there is a wicked, mad person beside this image, and Shamshu is very close to who I’m as a person.”
With all that’s going around in Shefali’s career, the kind of work she is doing in her forties, she feels seen as an actor.
“Yes, absolutely, I finally feel seen. There was a director who took a chance and said ‘I’m going to put her in the centre of this’, I mean what better way to start than with Delhi Crime? And then there were other directors who said that they want me, they wrote stuff keeping me in mind, like Human, even Jalsa was written with Vidya and me in mind,” she shares.
Shefali is a rare case where she started playing central roles when she hit 40, because most Bollywood women actors stop getting roles of their choice at that age. “Definitely that norm and notion of shelf life for female actors is going away. Yes, a couple of years ago, if you every brought up this idea that there is a woman, any woman, in her forties, playing a lead, it would be like seriously?’ Female leads were supposed to be between the ages of 18 and 22. There are a lot of women who paved this path. There was Smita (Patil) ji, there is Shabana (Azmi) ji, there is Vidya, who has paved her path, she played age appropriate roles and she is a lead, and has done some amazing work, and I am glad that I’m getting that due now.”
On a parting note, Shefali confesses that even if she started her 2.0 journey much later than anticipated, she is not bitter. “I don’t get bitter about it, no. Everyone has to struggle, it is a part of life. In our industry, luck also plays a big part , and unfortunately talent is not what necessarily gets you more work or popularity. There were choices I made, I was comfortable with not being popular, I was comfortable with not being seen. I was comfortable with doing what I wanted to do at my time and pace. Those were the choices I made and hence I am not at all bitter about it. Also, at that point in time, uss umar ki Shefali ne jo sahi laga woh kiya. Right now I look back and say, ‘oh my god that should have happened’. But they’re hypotheticals, and life is too short to be bitter, it is a waste of time and energy,” Shefali concludes.
Actor Shefali Shah is awaiting the release of her Netflix film, Darlings. (Photo: Shefali Shah/ Instagram)