‘No more motherly roles’

Blaming filmmaker husband Vipul Shah for typecasting her in elderly roles, Shefali Shah insists she’ll now only play her age like in her new movie, KuchhLuvJaisa

Although she earned acclaim for her portrayal as Kasturba Gandhi in GandhiMyFather (2007), Shefali Shah says she will not play mother roles again. The 36-year-old actor blames filmmaker husband Vipul Shah, who first made her a mother on screen, in Waqt - TheRaceAgainstTime (2005), for typecasting her. The actor, who won National Award for Best Supporting Actor for TheLastLear (2007), is glad to be finally playing her age in Barnali Shukla's KuchhLuvJaisaa, which releases today.

HT Image

Shefali says, "I blame Vipul for my dinosaur age on screen. I wish I had not taken up such elderly roles." Recalling Vipul offering her the role of Amitabh Bachchan's wife and Akshay Kumar's mother in Waqt - TheRaceAgainstTime, she says, "He convinced me that the role suited me a lot. I played Akshay's mother despite being much younger than him." Shefali explains how she ended up being playing mother on the screen for many movies that followed. "I would next be offered the part of a grandmother," she says.

No wonder Shefali is eagerly looking forward to KuchhLuvJaisaa, in which she plays a young housewife. "With this film, I can show my other side to all those who think that I can only do serious and intense roles," she says, citing instances where directors have consistently offered her serious roles, praising her talent to take on complicated characters.

“Filmmakers would compliment my work, but when casting for a heroine, they’d never think of me. But now I’m not keen on playing motherly roles,” she says.