Straight off the Delhi Crime Season 3, actress Shefali Shah interacted with the media over her journey from playing a mother at 28 to leading one of India’s most acclaimed international series, from National Awards to Emmys, and how Delhi Crime honed her craft inside out.
Looking back, Shefali laughed and cringed a little at her early decisions. She played a mother at just 28 of Akshay Kumar in Waqt, even though Akshay is five years older than her. She admits that the experience stayed with her for years.
Adding that she usually doesn’t watch her films, so must have watched it once, right? But if she had to watch “Waqt” watch again now, she would die of embarrassment. She continued that she never had the maturity, understanding, or knowledge of cinema that she has today.
The actress went on to reveal that Delhi Crime completely transformed her technique and her bond with the craft.
Adding further that her way of working transformed drastically after she did “Delhi Crime”. Not only was it a watershed in her career, it transformed the way she approaches her work.
After Waqt, Shefali made a quiet but firm decision – she would never again play a mother to someone older than her or just a few years younger. And yet, years later, Zoya Akhtar offered her Neelam Mehra in Dil Dhadakne Do, another mother role. Shefali confesses she was certain she would decline it.
She recalled that when Zoya met her she said,
she (Shefali) said she knew she will mostly say no, but she had to try. She began reading the script with hesitation – until one moment transformed everything.
She read that one line: She stuffs her face with cake. And she was like; she has to do this. That moment is priceless.”
Today, Shefali doesn’t need glycerine for emotional scenes. The intensity of her performance comes from immersion.
She further went on to voice that when she does a scene, she is completely into the character. She lives every moment. Neelam Mehra had lived all the humiliation the guy put her through. Shefali feels those emotions very strongly.
She reminiscences her early TV days when crying without glycerine was considered a big achievement. On Daraar, she cried naturally for the first time and was applauded for it.
Now when she puts glycerine like when already given 15 takes it doesn’t even work she said amidst laughter.
She recounts a moment on the set of Gandhi, Her Father, where she played Kasturba Gandhi – a performance that won her the National Award for Best Supporting Actress. Director Feroz Abbas Khan made her repeat an emotional breakdown from 10 PM to 4 AM.
She wanted to kill him. But he said he wanted her to reach that level of frustration.
There was a similar intense moment in Delhi Crime that she performed repeatedly, a moment she calls “very important,” which never made it to the final cut. “The heartbreak is they didn’t even keep it.
From playing Vartika Chaturvedi, a fierce DCP in Delhi Crime, to redefining the modern Indian mother onscreen, Shefali Shah’s journey is marked by courage, conviction, and an instinct that only gets sharper with time.
News Edit KV Raman
