by Sourish Bhattacharyya, and Akshay Acharya Mumbai, Sep 1 : Now famous among her rising number of fans because of her ‘Delhi Crime’ character, DCP Vartika Chaturvedi, actress-restaurateur-hostess with the mostest Shefali Shah has established herself as the new queen of the web after her powerful performances in ‘Delhi Crime’, ‘Human’, ‘Jalsa’ and ‘Darlings’.
From Gujarati theatre that has produced a multitude of Hindi film stars beginning with A.K.Hangal and Sanjeev Kumar to TV soaps that have been a huge hit like ‘Banegi Apni Bat and ‘Tara’ in the days when she was called Shefali Chhaya.to ‘Satya’ as well as ‘Monsoon Wedding’, to her internet success, Shah has appeared in many roles in her acting career that spans over three decades and in every one of her roles she is a success.
And she has capped her hectic acting schedule by opening an eatery that is vegetarian named Jalsa in Ahmedabad in the year 2000 in which the world outside of her circle of friends discovered that she is a well-known cook, referred to by those who are closest to her as “Maa Annapurna”.
You are not welcomed by her and then not return without enjoying delicious food prepared by her.
The adulation and love she receives today didn’t happen over night or with only one film.Her journey to acting began with the theatre, which shows its strong hold on her voice’s texture.It is the trademark of theatre actors, since they must be heard by their audience in the back row.Shah knows which buttons to press to fit the mood and the scene that a scene requires.
She was born Shefali Shetty, she is the sole child of Mangalorean Sudhakar Shetty, who was a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) employee who was recruited in the sports quota and also his Gujarati wife Shobha who is a homoeopathy physician.
Shah made her debut an actor when she was 10 when her mother backed her take on a role inspired by Damien Thorn from the supernatural thriller The Omen.Shefali’s mother has been her closest friend since then.It was only normal for her to venture into Gujarati theater, considering her mother’s heritage.
As a stage performer, she did Gujarati plays like ‘Ant Vagarni, Antakshari” and ‘Doctor Tame pan before moving on to Gujarati films and then television, which was made available via cable and in a boom in the 90s.
In one of her productions, Shah caught the attention of an actor of the show on television “Banegi Apni Bhat” (1993-97, Zee TV).She auditioned for the role and was an integral part of the cult show, in which she played with Surekha Sikri and then unknownIrrfan Khan and R.Madhavan.
Shah was married to the TV actor Harsh Chhaya in 1994 and took on Chhaya as her name of her last name.
She made her mark as a TV’s biggest star with the most popular TV programs of the 90s.The most notable were ‘Hasratein’ and ‘Naya Nukkad and ‘Aarohan’ in which she was as a naval cadet during the time in which the Indian Navy did not have women in its ranks.
In the same time, she made her Bollywood debut, but not without some hiccups, with a fleeting role that was influenced by Sridevi in Ram Gopal Varma’s “Rangeela the Musical’ in actual fact, the rage of her character allow Urmila Matondkar’s Mili Joshi to be cast in the role that made her a superstar.
As her character ‘Rangeela, Shah also threw a fight and walked out of the shoot when she realized that the character she was playing wasn’t the one she was promised.
However, she impressed RGV who enticed her in for his cult film “Satya,” in which she was Bhiku Mhatre/Manoj Bajpayee’s wife Pyari.
What can we forget about her fun in the Asha Bhosale-Suresh Waddkar song ‘Sapne Mein milti Hai from the film? making a statement with her performance in front of an ensemble of notorious criminals!
After her divorce from Harsh, Shefali married producer-director Vipul Amrutlal Shah in 2000.In the same year, she had a cameo appearance in the Amitabh Bachchan and the Shah Rukh Khan-directed film ‘Mohabbatein’.
The film was followed by a larger part in Mira Nair’s film ‘Monsoon Wedding’ in the following year, in which she plays the role of woman who confronts her abusive partner, who is played by Rajat Kapoor, when she notices him making sexual advances towards her niece.
This was one of the most memorable scenes in the film.
After ‘Monsoon Wedding’ Shay decided to accept motherhood and decided to say “no” to work as she would like to be able to spend time with her sons Aryaman and Maurya.
She made her return to silver screens with her husband’s film ‘Waqt The Race Against Time’ (2005).In the film, she was Sumitra Thakur as the wife of Amitabh Bachchan’s character in the film.
The role proved to be a disaster when she was cast as mother.Her performance in the film later attracted criticism for her role as the wife of Bachchan who is thirty years older to her, even though she was performing her role with absolute honesty and believable.
Shah however, was played in several of films that were very different including “15 Park Avenue,” Feroz Abbas Khan’s film ‘Gandhi my Father and ” Rituparno Ghosh’s film-withina-film ‘The last Lear’, and “Karthik Calling Karathik,” which led her to Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment.
This friendship came in useful three or four years later the time and Zoya Akhtar set out to create ‘Dil Dhadakane which Shah was chosen to play Neelam Mehra in the film alongside Anil Kapoor’s Kamal Mehra.
Naturally, Shah once more crafted an appearance that is real and fresh to the present day.
However as she has stated numerous times in the past it was the advent of OTT platforms that gave life to her career, much like the impact that cable television brought to her in the 1990s.
Shah Along with Pankaj Tripathi and Huma Qureishi, are at very top of the list of the most popular actors in the OTT world today.Her big-bang comeback began with the Netflix series, ‘Delhi crime which’s premiere season was inspired in part by the Nirbhaya Gangrape case that shaken the morale of the capital city in 2012.
She played the main character, DCP Vartika, in the Emmy-winning series International, which is a direct result of the expert advice given to the producers by the former Delhi Police Commissioner, Neeraj Kumar.
Since the time, Shah has played an untrustworthy doctor who conducts unconstitutional human trials for pharma companies in “Human” (Disney+ Hotstar) and a maid for Vidya Balan’s journalist in the thrilling drama “Jalsa” (Amazon Prime Video) and as the mother of Alia Bhatt’s character in “Darlings” (Netflix) and plotting ways to rid herself of her daughter’s abusive husband.
Her on-screen relationship with Alia appears to be a hit with the audience, and has made ‘Darlings’ a critically acclaimed success.In an interview with the promotion of the movie, Shah said to IANS: “Alia and I have never sat in a circle, thinking about what we would accomplish with our characters or the formula off camera.If the lenses were not covered and we were more concerned about what we would be eating for the meal.
“But when we heard the word “action,” we simply fell into our roles of the mother and daughter.My approach is to not adhere to any prescribed procedure and to let the characters find me rather than me running after the characters.”
Today, Shah is back in the lives of her viewers with the return of season two of “Delhi Crime,” that is based by the wave of murders committed by members of the Pardi tribe which became famous as the “kachcha baniyan band” or the “chaddi baniyan gang” in cities in western and northern India beginning with Delhi in 1987 until.
And, as could be expected, she has got her audience captivated by an even more intense and complex drama.
aa/srb
