Shefali Shah on Kanwal Sethi's Once Again, her diverse filmography and directorial ambitions

“I am a hard-core romantic,” says Shefali Shah as she sips coffee and talks about her latest release Once Again . The mature love story, recently released on Netflix, will soon be in cinemas (through 1018mb). Shah plays Tara, a single parent and restaurant owner infatuated by a client for whom she prepares a daily dinner. “It’s something I have not been able to explore, or no one had been brave enough to offer me the genre,” she says of the Indo-German film directed by Kanwal Sethi and co-starring Neeraj Kabi. “The three main characters in the film are Tara, Amar and the loneliness in the city,” she adds.

Throughout of conversation, Shah is animated, excited, and affable. She says she is like this about everything that interests her in her life — whether it’s her home, her children, her writing or her painting. Passion is the driver in every aspect.

“In every artistic pursuit, you have to be passionate. I am excessively enthusiastic about everything I do — whether I am doing flowers in my house or cooking for my children. Sometimes Vipul (Shah, husband, filmmaker) is, like, this is a bit much,” she says.

The National Award winner (best supporting actress for The Last Lear, 2007) made her debut with Rangeela in 1995, but she prefers to mark Satya (1998) as the starting point for her Hindi film career. Given her 23 years in the film industry, Shah’s filmography is deep rather than being long.

Ask her about her choices and she says, “I did get offered work, but it became the same. I love acting too much for it to just become a job. Sure, I don’t have a vast filmography, but each film is special — from Satya to Monsoon Wedding, The Last Lear, Dil Dhadakne Do and Juice. Whatever I do has to really excite me. I don’t want to regret going on a set. I wouldn’t do something for the money or the popularity or just to be seen.”

She feels fortunate to have had the opportunity to play strong characters, like Kasturba in Gandhi, My Father, especially since her career has evolved without design. “I have never set goalposts or planned my career. Acting was never on the radar. I wanted to be an air-hostess and then I wanted to be a surgeon. I began acting in theatre and then did television and, after a point of time, I thought I am doing this regularly so maybe this is my profession,” says the mother of two teenage boys.

Maintaining a work-life balance is top priority for Shah. “I really, really love my work, but I do have a rich life besides. I am an extremely hands-on mom and I am involved with Vipul’s stuff, not so much his work but otherwise — though I am the first to read his scripts and watch the rough cut edit of his films. I have a beautiful home, which I am very proud of. I paint, write, read, watch films and have an active social life.”

She’s also written a couple of scripts, and direction is on the horizon. “I do want to direct, but I am not ready yet. Then again, I feel that unless I take the plunge, I may never be ready.”

For now, she’s looking forward to her first web series based on the Delhi police files, directed by Richie Mehta, and to rich roles coming her way.

Shah played a mother when she was just 21 (in the TV show Hasratein). Then in 2006, she played the mother to the older Akshay Kumar in Waqt. In 2007, she played Kasturba Gandhi to Akshaye Khanna’s Mahatma Gandhi in Gandhi, My Father.

“The industry does not know where to place me. The screen age I have is about 85, so they offer me grandmother roles. I am not exactly there yet,” she says, with tongue firmly in cheek.

A recent pivotal point came last year, with Neeraj Ghaywan’s short film Juice. “It was so subtle and so powerful at the same time. It showed me the way I am; in my age group. I have no qualms playing my age and now there are some interesting parts being written for women my age,” says Shah, naming Lipstick Under My Burkha and Tumhari Sulu as examples.

Besides the script itself, her choice of films is based on the director. “I need to know their work, meet them, figure out if they are open to an instinctive performance and the organic nature of character development, which is my approach to acting. I can’t act. Really. I have not studied the craft of acting. I have to feel it and be it.”

And when Amar rejects Tara’s affection in Once Again, or her chauvinistic husband bosses her around in Juice, we feel it too.