Shefali Shah On Getting Her Due In Bollywood In Her 40s: ‘I Finally Feel Seen’

Bollywood actress Shefali Shah made her mark yet again with Netflix superhit show ‘Delhi Crime’, which also bagged the outstanding drama series awards at International Emmys in 2020. Her last film ‘Jalsa’, with Vidya Balan, and web-series ‘Human’, were highly appreciated. Now she is all set to play Shamshu with Alia Bhatt in Netflix film ‘Darlings’.

In a recent interview, the actress is elated that she is being ‘seen’ once again, this time with the kind of work she really wanted to do. “It has been quite exciting, very exciting, and thank God, der aaye durust aaye,” she told Indian Express, adding that she actually waited for the kind of roles she’s doing now. 

“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 wanted me, they wrote stuff keeping me in mind, like Human, even Jalsa was written with Vidya and me in mind,” she shared.

Clearly, the actress is currently at the top of her again in her forties, and has moved to much better acts than what she essayed in ‘Waqt: The Race Against Time’, where she played Akshay Kumar’s mother. Shefali added that finally the norm that most Bollywood women actors stop getting roles of their choice when they hit 40s is changing. 

“Yes, a couple of years ago, if you ever 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,” the actress maintained. 

As an actor, she feels there’s nothing she could do to make her past choices better or change the course of her career. “I could not, and that’s a fact. 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,” she concluded.

Well, certainly, Shefali is now a popular choice for leading roles for many OTT projects, and we just cannot get enough of her.