Fresh off the release of Delhi Crime Season 3, Shefali Shah sat down with us for an unfiltered conversation about 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 turned her craft inside out.
Looking back, Shefali laughs and cringes a little at her early decisions. She famously 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.
"I usually don't watch my films, so I must have watched it once, right? But if I had to watch Waqt again now, I would die of embarrassment," she says.
"I didn't have the maturity, understanding, or knowledge of cinema that I have today."
The actor reveals that Delhi Crime completely changed her technique and her relationship with the craft.
"My way of working changed drastically after I did Delhi Crime. Not only was it a turning point in my career, it changed the way I approach my 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.
"When Zoya met me, she said, 'I know you will mostly say no, but I had to try'," Shefali recalls. She began reading the script with hesitation - until one moment changed everything.
"I read that one line: She stuffs her face with cake. And I was like; I have to do this. That moment is priceless."
Today, Shefali doesn't need glycerine for emotional scenes. The intensity of her performance comes from immersion.
"When I do a scene, you are completely into the character. You live every moment. Neelam Mehra had lived all the humiliation the guy put her through. I feel those emotions very strongly."
She remembers 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 I put glycerine like when you've already given 15 takes it doesn't even work for me," she laughs.
She recounts a moment on the set of Gandhi, My 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.
"I wanted to kill him. But he said he wanted me to reach that level of frustration." she smiles.
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," she says.
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.
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