New Delhi, Shefali Shah says her husband Vipul Shah had advised her against taking the role of a mother in his 2005 directorial “Waqt” when she was barely in her 30s but she ended up doing the part after other casting choices fell through and Amitabh Bachchan recommended her name.
In the movie, she played Akshay Kumar’s mother though she was younger than him in real life. Her casting raised eyebrows at the time and ended up affecting the kind of roles that came her way.
Shah has now looked back at this chapter in her debut book, “The Audacity of Being: A Sort-of Memoir”.
According to the 53-year-old actor, Vipul originally wanted veteran actor Jaya Bachchan for the role. Hema Malini was also considered, but the idea was eventually dropped as it felt too similar to the Amitabh Bachchan-Hema Malini starrer “Baghban”, which was released in 2003.
“The mother, Sumi, was the anchor of the story the silent strength between the father and the son. Vipul had originally wanted Jaya ji, but that did not work out. Hema Malini ji was another great choice, but it felt too much like a repeat of ‘Baghban’, a film that Amit ji and Hema ji had done only a while ago,” Shah wrote.
“Waqt: The race against time”, which also starred Priyanka Chopra, was based on “Aavjo Vhala, Fari Malishu” , a play written and directed by Aatish Kapadia.
Shah said she fell in love with the character of Sumi after watching the play and eventually asked Vipul if she could play the role.
“He flat out said no and insisted it would not work, warning me that it would label me as a ‘mother’ on screen forever,” she wrote.
The situation changed after Bachchan, who was the “unanimous and only choice” to play the father, suggested that Vipul consider her for the role.
“Now, that was something Vipul could not turn down,” she wrote.
Shah described the role as an “opportunity of a lifetime”, as it allowed her to work with two of her favourite people in the industry Bachchan and Vipul.
In an interview with PTI, Shah acknowledged that playing an older character at that stage of her career had a lasting professional impact.
“I was naive enough to think that people would see it as, you know, it would be admired. Like, oh, wow, she can do this too, as an actor. She’s as old as this, and then she can play a role which is much older than her. But that’s not how it works. It’s absolutely not how it works,” Shah said.
“And it didn’t. And it’s not that I could pinpoint the blame on that particular decision. But I’m sure that decision had a lot to play with what I got offered after that,” she told PTI.
In the book, Shah recounted how she feared being the industry’s “next Nirupa Roy”, the late star known for playing self-sacrificing mother roles in films such as “Deewar” and “Amar Akbar Anthony”.
“After Waqt, I was bombarded with ‘mommy’ roles,” she wrote, adding that she had made what, in hindsight, was not the best professional choice at a crucial stage of her career.
Despite the consequences, Shah said she continues to value “Waqt” for giving her the opportunity to share screen space with Bachchan.
She recalled that she had once dreamed of standing outside his house just to see him wave.
“He is a legend who is so humble and treats you as an equal someone who puts you at ease,” she wrote.
“The Audacity of Being”, priced at ₹599 and published by Bloomsbury India, is currently available for purchase across online and offline stores.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.