The work that I want to do doesn’t come every day and I have come to terms with it: Shefali Shah

Shefali Shah is among those select actors who always prefer quality over quantity when it comes to their career graph. Maybe that’s one of the primary reasons why her filmography is not that dense as compared to other actors in the film industry, who have been around for as many years as her.

Shefali says that she does not treat her [acting] profession as a 9 to 5 job where in she will agree to do whatever comes her way. She admits that she is selective and feels that it has paid off well with films such as Satya (1998), Monsoon Wedding (2001), 15 Park Avenue(2005), Gandhi, My Father (2007) and Dil Dhadakne Do (2015) to her credit. 

She also feels that storytelling is changing in Indian cinema, which has helped her bag her first out-and-out romantic film, Once Again, something that she has never been offered in her over two-decade-long career.

The film, starring Neeraj Kabi, which is an Indo-German production, is a story about two people, who come from different background but fall in love and how their relationship faces societal pressures.

“I am a die-hard romantic, so I have always wanted to do a love story and this one came about. It was originally written in German, Kanwal Sethi (director) had written it in German and then it was made into Hindi,” she says.

Shefali feels that today “actors are dominating the films because they are actors, not because they are stars.” She explains, “The films are story-oriented. Take for example Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016), Pink (2016), these are incredible works.”

About her being selective, the actor says, “I have also come to terms with the fact that the kind of work that I want to do doesn’t come every day. It just won’t. So, I prefer to wait for the work that makes me happy and what people respect, than be part of 10 films.”

The actor adds that to her, work does not mean the length of the role, it means “the mettle, the potency and the relevance” of the role in the film.

“I was lucky to get really good films, even though I don’t have 100 films in my resume. The films that I have done are commendable. I love my work way too much to just go into it as a 9 to 5 job. I’d rather not do things [that] I am not going to be happy about. My goal is that my films should at least match up to my previous films if not be more,” shares Shefali.

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