Shefali Shah's EXCLUSIVE interview on her film 'Three Of Us', ageism in Bollywood, and facing sexual harassment

Shefali Shah has completed over 28 years in the industry. The first time the nation saw her was in Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela. She followed it up with titles like Satya, Monsoon Wedding, Waqt, Black and White, and more recently with incredibly solid and stunning performances in Dil Dhadakne Do, Delhi Crime, Jalsa, and Darlings. Her next film is called Three Of Us. This is a character which is showing early signs of dementia. She’s beginning to forget people but does remember the memories she’s had with them, and wants to relieve them with her husband and an old friend. School Of Lies  fame Avinash Arun’s new film promises to be a take on friendship, quaintness, and also jealousy and fear. And Shah at the center of these reservoir of emotions.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, the actress spoke about getting into the vulnerability of this character Shailja after a string of commanding and intimidating turns, prepping to play this fragile woman, and how being vulnerable also requires courage. Edited excerpts from the interview How much of Shefali do you see in Shailja? I think the vulnerability, but the fact is that on the screen, you rarely see me like this. You have always seen me play these strong characters because that’s what my image is. But there’s a very very vulnerable side to me in Three Of Us that I share with her; however, she’s far more delicate and far more fragile. And it also has to do with the fact that she’s losing grip on herself. You won the best actress award at Indo German film festival for Three Of Us, Delhi Crime won the best series award at the Emmys. Do you feel these are the validations that go beyond box-office?

These are validations. These validations are then also translating into more work and love and respect for the audience, and for me, these are much bigger validations. The characters you’ve played in recent times, be Delhi Crime, Darlings, Human, there’s something very intimidating about them. But Shailja showing early signs of dementia is very fragile. What was your prep for this role? I remember messaging Avinash on the first day of the shoot and telling him that I don’t know what I’m doing, I hope he does. He said that even he didn’t know what he was doing. We both opened a great space. Avinash spoke to me about the film and before we knew it, we were already shooting for it. I was very uneasy that I didn’t have enough time to prep but after a point, I realized I couldn’t have prepped for it. She’s lost and she has to be lost, let this just happen. Every film and every show requires different type of prep, for this one I was feeling ‘Oh god I’m not being committed enough, giving enough,’ but it worked so beautifully. I didn’t know what was happening and was just going with the flow, with nature and wherever we were. In fact, I belong more to them than I belong to me. What made you say yes to the role and the film? I had not even read it, we were on a zoom call and he just gave me a one liner, very scattered and I was like ‘I’m doing it.’ It was really as simple as that. Out of all the characters that you have played in the last 28 years, has any of them ever stayed with you after you have moved on to the next? Almost all. You give something of yourself to every character, and every character takes something out of you, it’s difficult to quantify what. Something after five years may come to me and I may not even know where it has come from. It’s very difficult to actually put a hisaab of it, but they do have given to me and taken a part of me and I’m so glad. Talking of being vulnerable, you have spoken about ageism in the industry, you recently spoke about facing harassment at a young age. Do you feel being vulnerable also requires a lot of courage? I think it’s extremely beautiful. Vulnerability is extremely beautiful, and strength comes from that. If you’re not going to feel it, how are you going to correct it. It’s incredible and if I had to say what is my strength, I would say it’s vulnerability. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .