Actress Shefali Shah has clearly emerged victorious this year with her web series, Delhi Crime, winning the International Emmys for the Best Drama Series. She absolutely killed it in her role as the fierce and sharp DCP of police in the series, proving that Indian shows and films are writing path-breaking stories with great women characters.
But of course, this is only a very recent development and we know it. In a recent interview, Shefali spoke about how for most part of her career, she was typecast in certain roles. Speaking to Times of India, the actress said that she was typecast as a mother very early on in her career.
She says that she was 20-years-old when she played a middle-aged mother to a 15-year-old on the show, Hasratein. She goes on to add that she was 28 to 30-years-old when she played Akshay Kumar‘s mother and Amitabh Bachchan‘s wife in the film Waqt: A Race Against Time. She jokes that she didn’t even have to reach a ‘certain age’ to be typecast in such roles and that according to her films, she should probably be around “133-years-old or something”!
Speaking about opportunities, she shares that she turned down many projects for years because they were “being so unfair” with the roles they were offering. She says that only afterwards, her short film Juice happened and then followed the film Once Again, which was a sweet love story. This paved way for her to get better opportunities. And then of course, Delhi Crime happened. She says she is so glad that finally these films and shows have put her in the centre of the frame and she is doing the kind of projects she desires.
We too are super glad that she came out and spoke about this very prevalent topic in the industry and I sure can’t wait to see what else she has in store for us in the coming times!