Shefali Shah says she’d always get respect but that wasn’t translating into work: ‘What do you do with it if I can’t do more work?’

“I don’t think it has sunk in yet. I don’t know what it means to me or for my career, but I think it’s a huge honour. The beauty of OTT is that it reaches across the globe and to be picked out of these wonderful actors is really a big honour for me. It is a validation that what I do is good,” Shah told PTI in an interview.

The 50-year-old actor has been working in the profession since 1993 and has a substantial body of work across all platforms – theatre, TV, films and OTT. She said she feels blessed that the appreciation has translated into more work opportunities.

“I’m like, ‘Der aaye durust aaye (Better late than never)’. Honestly, I’m glad. All these years, my career has been more about waiting than actually working. I’ve been lucky to get appreciation and respect, but it wasn’t translating into work. I was like, ‘What do you do with this respect and appreciation, if I can’t do more work?’ But now, it is translating into work, which is great.”

Shah believes Delhi Crime which started in 2019, gave confidence to many filmmakers that she can carry a project on her shoulder. Some of the projects where she played a lead or secondary lead include films like Darlings alongside Alia Bhatt, Jalsa with Vidya Balan and ‘Disney+ Hotstar’ series Human.

“‘Delhi Crime’ changed my life. It changed my work, my career and the way I work as well. So that became a turning point for me. It also became a learning point as people saw me playing a lead role and thought that she can carry this off,” she said.

“Last year, with all the releases, it went ahead to show that there were actors who trusted me enough to put me in lead or parallel leads and the primary cast. It has really taken a long time for it to happen and it has a big deal to do with ‘Delhi Crime’,” she added.

The first season of Delhi Crime had won the International Emmy for the ‘Best Drama Series’ in 2020, the first ever for India. Shah expressed gratitude to writers and directors for penning meatier roles for women of all age group.

“It’s great to know that finally directors and writers are seeing women at their prime in any age group. You don’t just have to be 16 to 20 years old to be a heroine or the lead. Earlier, unfortunately, actresses had a shelf life but we don’t have it anymore. We are infinite,” she said.

Besides Shah, actors Jim Sarbh and comedian Vir Das received nominations for the 2023 International Emmy Awards. Sarbh got a ‘Best Actor’ nod for his performance in show “Rocket Boys”, while Das’ stand-up special Landing is nominated in the comedy category.

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