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=                            Shefali Shah                            =
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                             Introduction                             
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Shefali Shah ( Shetty; born 22 May 1973) is an Indian actress of film,
television and theatre. Working primarily in independent Hindi films,
she has received multiple local and foreign accolades for her
performances. Shah's acting career started on the Gujarati stage
before she debuted on television in 1993. After small parts on
television and a brief stint with cinema in 'Rangeela' (1995), she
gained wider recognition in 1997 for her role in the popular series .
This was followed by lead roles in the TV series 'Kabhie Kabhie'
(1997) and 'Raahein' (1999). A supporting role in the crime film
'Satya' (1998) won her positive notice and a Filmfare Critics Award,
and she soon shifted her focus to film acting starting with a lead
role in the Gujarati drama 'Dariya Chhoru' (1999).

Shah was selective about her roles through the following decades,
resulting in intermittent film work, mostly in character parts and
often to appreciation from critics. She appeared in the international
co-production 'Monsoon Wedding' (2001) and the mainstream comedy-drama
'Waqt: The Race Against Time' (2005). In 2007, her portrayal of
Kasturba Gandhi in the biographical drama 'Gandhi, My Father' won her
the Best Actress prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival, and
she received the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for
the drama film 'The Last Lear'. Among her subsequent film roles, she
played a leading part in 'Kucch Luv Jaisaa' (2011) and was noted for
her work in the social problem film 'Lakshmi' (2014) and the ensemble
drama 'Dil Dhadakne Do' (2015).

Shah's career surged in the late 2010s as she transitioned to leading
roles. She won a Filmfare Short Film Award for her performance in
'Juice' (2017) and followed with two Netflix projects: the romantic
drama 'Once Again' (2018) and the crime miniseries 'Delhi Crime'
(2019). Her performance as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi in the latter met
with widespread acclaim. Five 2022 projects, including the Disney+
Hotstar webseries 'Human', the feature dramas 'Jalsa' and 'Darlings',
as well as the second season of 'Delhi Crime', brought Shah further
recognition. The last of these earned her a nomination for the
International Emmy Award for Best Actress, and she won a second
Filmfare Critics Award for playing a woman with early onset dementia
in 'Three of Us' (2023).


                       Early and personal life                        
======================================================================
Shefali Shah was born as Shefali Shetty on 22 May 1973 in Mumbai. She
is the only child of Mangalorean Sudhakar Shetty, a banker at Reserve
Bank of India (RBI), and his Gujarati wife Shobha, a homeopathy
doctor. Shah is fluent in Tulu, Hindi, English, Marathi and Gujarati.
The family resided in Santa Cruz, Mumbai at the RBI quarters, where
she attended Arya Vidya Mandir School. While she was inclined to the
arts as a child, including singing and dancing (she is trained in
Bharatanatyam), she did not find particular interest in acting. Her
first stint with acting happened on Gujarati stage when she was 10;
her school teacher's playwright husband asked Shah's mother if she
would permit her daughter to play a character based on Damien Thorn
from 'The Omen' (1976). Shah played the part upon her mother's consent
and would not act again until several years later. After her
schooling, she enrolled at Mithibai College in Vile Parle, opting to
study science, but spent most of her student days working in theatre.
Shah was married to television actor Harsh Chhaya from 1994 to 2000.
In December 2000, she married director Vipul Amrutlal Shah, with whom
she has two sons, Aryaman and Maurya.

In addition to acting, Shah is fond of painting and cooking. Finding
painting therapeutic, she says it gives her the creative outlet she
craves when not acting in films. She trained for six months at Last
Ship, an artists' residency in Bandra, and in 2016 took a course at
Metàfora, an art school in Barcelona, Spain. Working mostly with
acrylic on canvass as well as charcoal and ink, Shah focuses on
perspective art, namely "the marriage of perspective with
architectural designs" of places she has visited. She cites Mark
Rothko and Jackson Pollock as her sources of inspiration. One of her
paintings was on display at Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai at an
exhibition held by Art for Concern, where it was eventually sold,
while a solo show at The Monalisa Kalagram in Pune in 2017 was, by her
own admission, unsuccessful.

Shah opened a restaurant named Jalsa in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in 2021,
which serves Indian and international cuisines and offers customers
different cultural and recreational activities, from pottery and henna
decoration to musical performances such as Garba. She directly
supervises its cuisine, some of which is based on her home recipes, as
well as decor, having designed some of its interiors, including walls
hand-painted by her. The restaurant's second outlet was opened in
Bangalore, and was positively reviewed by 'Lifestyle Asia'.


 Early theatre and television work (1990–1996) 
===============================================
Shah's acting career began with work in inter-collegiate plays in
Gujarati during the early 1990s. Her work included roles in several
stage dramas including 'Ant Vagarni Antakshari' and 'Doctor Tame
Pan?'. A 1995 piece by 'Rasa' magazine reported that Shah had proved
her abilities to become one of the stars of Gujarati theatre. In one
of the plays, she was brought to the attention of a team member of the
TV serial 'Campus' (1993) who suggested that she audition for a part
in it. She was accepted following a screen test. This was followed by
several other serials, including the popular Zee TV shows 'Tara' and
'Banegi Apni Baat' (both 1993-1997), as well as 'Naya Nukkad'
(1993-1994) on Doordarshan and 'Daraar' (1994-1995) on Zee TV.

The year 1995 marked Shah's first film appearance with a brief role in
Ram Gopal Varma's 'Rangeela'. A few days into shooting, she realised
the part was different from what she was set up for, and she walked
out of the sets as she felt cheated. Shah was reluctant to work in
motion pictures after that, and the roles she was offered were mostly
small character parts. She continued working in TV series, including
Balaji Telefilms' 'Mano Ya Na Mano' (1995-1999) and Doordarshan's
'Aarohan' (1996-1997) and 'Sea Hawks' (1997-1998). An anthology horror
series, 'Mano Ya Na Mano' starred Shah opposite Durga Jasraj in an
episode titled "Kabzaa", directed by Homi Wadia, which was developed
into a full-fledged serial called 'Kavach' in 2016. 'Arohan', starring
and produced by Pallavi Joshi, tells the story of a woman who joins
the Indian Navy.


 Breakthrough with ''Hasratein'' and ''Satya'' (1997–1999) 
===========================================================
In 1997, Shah replaced Seema Kapoor in the Zee TV series  (1996-1999)
after over 120 episodes. In her first lead role, Shah starred as Savi,
a married woman involved in an extramarital affair with a married man.
Based on the Marathi novel 'Adhantari' by Jaywant Dalvi, the show was
popular with audiences and attracted attention for its commentary on
the institution of marriage. 'India Today' describes it as "one of the
prime productions that changed the face of Indian television". The
character of Savi, a mature woman with grown up children, was
significantly older in age than Shah. Given the age differences, she
had to persuade director Ajay Sinha to cast her. Bhavya Sadhwani of
'IndiaTimes' attributed the show's success with viewers mainly to the
"impeccable acting skills" demonstrated by Shah in the part. The
serial gained wider public recognition for Shah, and she called it a
milestone in her career. Her performance earned her the Zee Woman of
the Year award in 1997. Another lead role was given to her in Mahesh
Bhatt's weekend soap 'Kabhie Kabhie' (1997), which aired on StarPlus.

In 1998, she was offered a small part in Ram Gopal Varma's crime
thriller 'Satya', which revolves around the Mumbai underworld. Having
been disappointed in her previous collaboration with Varma on
'Rangeela', she was hesitant on accepting it but eventually relented
as she found the part special and made sure to receive thorough
information about it. In a seven-minute role, she played Pyaari
Mhatre, the wife of a mafia gangster played by Manoj Bajpayee. Their
roles were said to be modelled after Arun Gawli and his wife Asha.
Shah said she instinctively recognised her part and knew exactly how
to play it. 'Satya' opened to commercial success and major critical
acclaim, and Shah's performance in it was favourably reviewed. Anupama
Chopra of 'India Today' wrote that Shah and her co-actors "are so good
that you can almost smell the Mumbai grime on their sweaty bodies".
For her portrayal, Shah won the Screen Award for Best Supporting
Actress. At the 44th Filmfare Awards, she was nominated for the
Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress and was awarded the Critics
Award for Best Actress.

Despite the positive reaction to her work in 'Satya', Shah did not
receive as many film offers as she expected. Following 'Hasratein',
she starred in its successor on Zee TV's prime-time spot, the soap
opera 'Raahein' (1999). The show was met with approval from viewers
and critics alike. She played Preeti, a woman caught between her love
life and career ambitions. In contrast to Shah's previous roles, the
character of Preeti was 22 years old. Shailaja Bajpai of 'The Indian
Express' commended Shah's acting talent but thought she was less
suitable for such a young-aged part, concluding that she is
"brilliantly miscast". During this period she was one of the co-hosts
on the musical game show 'Antakshari' opposite Annu Kapoor. Among
other projects on television, she acted in several episodes of the
anthology series 'Rishtey' (1999-2001), including the well-received
"Highway".

In 1999, she was cast in a Gujarati film, 'Dariya Chhoru', made by her
future husband Vipul Shah. A love story situated on the coast of
Saurashtra between a poor man (Jamnadas Majethia) and a wealthy woman
(Shah), the film was named Best Film at the Gujarat State Film Awards,
where Shah won the Best Actress award. The film, which 'The Times of
India' said should cater to educated Gujarati viewers, was a
box-office success. According to the book 'Routledge Handbook of
Indian Cinemas', it was among the films that started a trend of larger
productions in the Gujarati film industry. In the book 'Gujarat: A
Panorama of the Heritage of Gujarat', the film was praised for its
beautiful portrayal and Shah and her colleagues were hailed as screen
artistes who "could create fresh hopes among the film goers in
Gujarat".


 Recognition for character roles (2000–2007) 
=============================================
Shah's work in the 2000s started with a short appearance in Aditya
Chopra's 2000 romance 'Mohabbatein'. A year later, she was cast in
Mira Nair's international co-production 'Monsoon Wedding', a
comedy-drama which chronicles the reunion of a large Punjabi family
for a wedding. Shah played Rhea Verma, an orphaned young woman,
aspiring writer and a survivor of child sexual abuse, a character she
considered as the most complex in the film. The film opened to
considerable international acclaim, receiving the Golden Lion at the
58th Venice International Film Festival and nominations for Best
Foreign Language Film at the BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards. Elvis
Mitchell of 'The New York Times' singled out Shah's part, and Saibal
Chatterjee of 'Hindustan Times' wrote that she "taps into the depths
of a difficult character with amazing ease". The film was a
significant box-office success, earning over $33million against its
$1.2million budget.

Shah worked again under her husband Vipul's direction in the family
melodrama 'Waqt: The Race Against Time' (2005), playing Amitabh
Bachchan's wife and Akshay Kumar's mother. She was considered for the
part following Bachchan's suggestion against her husband's hesitation.
Her casting in the role of a middle-aged mother to Kumar, who in
reality is five years her senior, attracted considerable media
coverage. She defended her choice of the part, saying she admired the
character's traits and found particular challenge in the significant
age differences. Her portrayal of Sumitra Thakur, a strict mother who
encourages her husband to take extreme measures to discipline their
irresponsible son, earned her a second Filmfare nomination for Best
Supporting Actress. Derek Elley of 'Variety' and Ziya Us Salam of 'The
Hindu' commended her subtle and composed acting, and Subhash K. Jha of
'The Times of India' argued that "it's Shefali Shah as Amitabh
Bachchan's wife whose expressive eyes conveying spousal and
matriarchal pain that you come home with". She followed with a role in
Aparna Sen's English-language drama '15 Park Avenue' (2005).


In 2007, Shah was lauded for her work in two films: Feroz Abbas Khan's
biographical film 'Gandhi, My Father' and Rituparno Ghosh's
English-language film-within-a-film drama 'The Last Lear'. An
Indo-British co-production, 'Gandhi, My Father' features Shah in the
role of Kasturba Gandhi, who is torn by the lifelong conflict between
her husband Mahatma Gandhi and son Hiralal (played by Darshan Jariwala
and Akshaye Khanna, respectively). Portraying the character from
Kasturba's early adulthood to old age, Shah lost weight to look the
part. Khalid Mohamed of 'Hindustan Times' called her performance
"magnificent" and Roshmila Bhattacharya of 'Screen' described her as
"brilliant, her sparkling glances, eloquent silences and drooping
shoulders effectively conveying the hopelessness and helplessness of a
parent whose child has gone astray". She was awarded the Best Actress
prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival and the Critics Award
for Best Actor - Female at the 2008 Zee Cine Awards.

'The Last Lear' revolves around a Shakespearean theatre actor (played
by Amitabh Bachchan). Shah played his troubled and irritable caregiver
and live-in partner, a role she considered her best yet, alongside
Preity Zinta and Divya Dutta. The film premiered at the 2007 Toronto
International Film Festival where it was well-received. Rajeev Masand
of IBN Live wrote of "the manner she goes from spiteful to soothing"
throughout the film, and Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com took note of
Shah's commanding presence. The film was named Best Feature Film in
English at the 55th National Film Awards, where Shah won the Best
Supporting Actress award for what was cited by the jury as an
"aggressive portrayal of a Bengali housewife who in time becomes more
tolerant of her aging husband's many eccentric guests".


 Intermittent work on stage and screen (2008–2016) 
===================================================
Subhash Ghai's crime thriller 'Black & White' (2008) stars Shah as
Roma Mathur, a Bengali activist and the wife of an Urdu professor
(Anil Kapoor). The film follows the couple's acquaintance with a
disguised Islamic fundamentalist plotting a suicide attack at the Red
Fort. It generated mixed reviews and so did Shah's performance, which
Khalid Mohamed found to be "unusually hammy".Review of 'Black &
White':
*
*
*
*  Two years later, in view of the lack of substantial film work that
would realise her acting potential, Shah's husband Vipul cast her in
his Hindi stage production 'Bas Itna Sa Khwab', directed by
Chandrakant Kulkarni. Based on Kulkarni's Marathi play 'Dhyanimani',
it marked Shah's return to the stage after a decade and saw her in the
role of a middle-class housewife opposite Kiran Karmarkar. The
production travelled from Mumbai's Rangsharda to Ludhiana's Sanskritik
Samagam, to Dubai. She spoke of her acting experience on stage,
recounting her full involvement with her character: "I have to
literally break down every time, then collect the pieces and put them
back together again." Authors Sunil Kant Munjal and S.K. Rai, in the
book 'All the World is a Stage', lavished praise on her performance.


After appearing as a psychiatrist in the thriller 'Karthik Calling
Karthik' in 2010, Shah was cast in the lead part of her husband's
production 'Kucch Luv Jaisaa' the following year. She played a young
housewife who spends a romantic day with a criminal on the run from
prison (Rahul Bose). To prepare for the part, Shah visited the Thane
Jail and interacted with prisoners to attain better understanding of
her character's experience. The film opened to a lukewarm critical
response, with critics Subhash K. Jha and Mihir Fadnavis observing
that Shah struggles with material that was written with little
conviction. Her efforts were better received by Mayank Shekhar, who
found her "startlingly expressive" and commended her for exuding "the
kind of vulnerability and warmth that's rare to match". After three
years of absence from the screen, Shah returned as Jyoti, a brothel
madam in Nagesh Kukunoor's 2014 social problem film 'Lakshmi',
alongside Monali Thakur. Based on the true story of a teenager who is
kidnapped and sold into a brothel in Hyderabad, 'Lakshmi' released to
a positive critical reception for its harshly realistic depiction
human trafficking and child prostitution. Sudhish Kamath appreciated
Shah's performance in a complex role.

In 2015, Shah starred in Zoya Akhtar's comedy-drama 'Dil Dhadakne Do'
alongside Anil Kapoor as her husband, and Priyanka Chopra and Ranveer
Singh as her children. The story is about a wealthy, dysfunctional
family who embark on a cruise to celebrate the 30th wedding
anniversary of the parents; Shah played Neelam Mehra, the
passive-aggressive matriarch caught in a marriage of convenience and
hiding her eating disorder. Shah loved the script and the character
but was initially apprehensive about accepting another part of a
middle-aged woman and playing a mother to Chopra and Singh; she
eventually relented on her husband's advice. 'Dil Dhadakne Do' was one
of the highest-grossing Hindi films of 2015. A scene where an
emotionally collapsing Neelam is seen binging on a cake in front of
the mirror was particularly noted by critics. Subhash K. Jha found
Shah's performance the most effective of the ensemble cast, arguing
she "brings to her character an unfussy pitch-perfection rarely seen
in mainstream cinema". She received her third Best Supporting Actress
Filmfare nomination for the film, and was awarded the Stardust Award
for Best Supporting Actress as well as a Screen Award for Best
Ensemble Cast along with her co-stars in the film.

In 'Brothers' (2015), Karan Malhotra's remake of the American sports
drama 'Warrior' (2011), Shah had a minor supporting role. Her
character Maria Fernandes is presented in flashbacks as a woman who
accepts the child her adulterous husband had out of wedlock. The film
generated mixed-to-negative reviews; Vishal Menon of 'The Hindu'
thought she had a role which required copious crying but 'The
Hollywood Reporter' found her performance heartbreaking. Shah voiced
the character of Raksha in the Hindi version of the Disney live-action
feature 'The Jungle Book' (2016). She next played the fictional part
of India's Minister of Home Affairs Leena Chowdhury in the action
thriller 'Commando 2: The Black Money Trail'.


 Critical acclaim in leading roles (2017–present) 
==================================================
In 2017, Shah acted in 'Juice', a short film about gender inequality
in middle-class Indian families. Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan, it stars
Shah as Manju Singh, a woman who, after hours spent in the kitchen,
acts in defiance of her inconsiderate husband. The film and Shah's
performance received favourable reviews. Critics noted her ability to
communicate emotions through gestures and expressions; Kriti Tulsiani
wrote that Shah's "unfazed gazes convey more than words will ever
say". The film won two Filmfare Short Film Awards at the 63rd Filmfare
Awards: Best Film (fiction) and Best Actress for Shah. In years to
follow, she credited 'Juice' as the first of several films that helped
propel her career forward. In 'Once Again' (2018), an Indo-German
Netflix romance film, Shah was cast in the lead as a widowed
middle-aged restaurateur who falls in love with an ageing film star
played by Neeraj Kabi. Shah said she had long awaited a film of the
sort, describing herself as "an incurable romantic". She received
compliments for her performance, and her chemistry with Kabi drew
positive notice. Deepa Gahlot of 'Financial Chronicle' appreciated the
film's subtlety and took note of Shah's expressive eyes revealing her
inner state, an opinion shared by other critics.


Shah's second collaboration with Netflix took place in the 2019
procedural miniseries 'Delhi Crime', which was written and directed by
Richie Mehta. Based on the aftermath of the 2012 Delhi gang rape, the
show stars Shah as Vartika Chaturvedi, a South Delhi Deputy
Commissioner of Police (DCP) who is assigned to investigate a brutal
gang rape in Delhi. The character was modelled after former Delhi DCP
Chhaya Sharma. Shah found the part "emotionally, physically, mentally"
consuming and would often interact with Sharma throughout filming to
learn more about the character. The series opened to universally
positive reviews from critics, and Shah's performance met with
widespread acclaim. Dorothy Rabinowitz of 'The Wall Street Journal'
commended Shah for "a movingly understated and complex performance"
and Namrata Joshi of 'The Hindu' wrote: "Shah is on top of her game,
conflicted yet sure of herself, vulnerable but strong, swayed by
emotions yet never giving in to them, bristling equally with anger,
concern, disappointments and dejection." 'Delhi Crime' was named Best
Drama Series at the 48th International Emmy Awards, and won four Asian
Academy Creative Awards, including Best Drama Series and Best Actress
for Shah. She hailed the show as a turning point in her life, saying
it reassured filmmakers to cast her in primary parts and heralded the
busiest period of her career.

In 2020, Shah experimented with writing and directing in two
self-starring COVID-19-based short films, 'Someday' and 'Happy
Birthday Mummyji'. In 'Someday', which marked her directorial debut,
she played a frontline healthcare worker who returns home for a
seven-day quarantine due to the pandemic and spends time interacting
through a door with her elderly mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's
disease. Shah conceived the story based on memories from her mother
who had turned caregiver to her grandmother, and shot the film with a
five-member crew at her residence over a period of two days. The film
premiered at the 51st USA Film Festival and was later screened at the
18th Indian Film Festival Stuttgart in Germany. In 'Happy Birthday
Mummyji', she played Suchi, a housewife whose preparations for her
mother-in-law's birthday party are halted by a sudden national curfew,
leaving her home alone and decisive to make the most of the rare
opportunity to spend time on herself. Shah wrote the script drawing
upon her own life experiences and believed Suchi "represents all the
women you know". A single-character film, it opened to positive
reviews and attracted some notice for a masturbation scene played by
Shah.

The 2021 Netflix original anthology film 'Ajeeb Daastaans', comprising
four short stories, featured Shah in the fourth segment "Ankahi",
directed by Kayoze Irani. She played Natasha, an unhappily married
woman who struggles with her teenaged daughter's hearing loss and
falls in love with a hearing-impaired photographer, played by Manav
Kaul. She studied sign language in preparation for the part and
revealed to have grown so emotionally invested in the story that it
left her heartbroken when filming ended. "Ankahi" was well-received by
critics, with particular emphasis placed on Shah and Kaul's
performances.

In 2022, Shah starred in 'Human', a medical streaming television
series. Directed by her husband for Disney+ Hotstar, the show explores
the nexus between pharmaceutical companies and large private hospitals
who conduct human trials for new drugs on lower-class citizens. She
played Dr. Gauri Nath, a powerful and ruthlessly ambitious
neurosurgeon with a traumatic childhood who owns Manthan, a
self-founded multi-specialty hospital. Shah found the negative
character of Gauri to be unlike anyone she had ever known. 'Hindustan
Times' described Gauri as one of the best characters on Indian digital
series yet, calling her an "incredibly disturbed sociopath" and "a
vicious snake singularly committed to building her business". Critics
reacted positively to Shah's turn, noting her composed demeanor and
hushed tone in the part.Reviews of 'Human':
*
*
*
*
*
*

Later in the year, Shah starred opposite Vidya Balan in the social
thriller 'Jalsa', an Amazon Prime feature film. Her part is that of
Rukhsana, a maid whose daughter becomes the victim of a hit-and-run
accident. The film opened to a positive response from critics, and
Shah received rave reviews for her understated performance. She was
named Best Actress at the annual Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.
Anuj Kumar of 'The Hindu' commended Shah and her character: "At the
cost of repeating oneself, the depth of Shefali's eyes and the
emotions that they could hold continues to bewitch and baffle. Her
Rukhsana is that vulnerable maid from the margins who makes an attempt
to hold on to a life of dignity." In the black comedy 'Darlings'
(2022), produced for Netflix, Shah and Alia Bhatt star as a mother and
daughter who embark on a revenge plan against the latter's abusive
husband. Shubhra Gupta complimented Shah for a "powerful act", and
Anna M. M. Vetticad wrote of Shah's effective blend of comedy and
drama in the part. 'Darlings' became the highest-viewed non-English
Indian original on Netflix. At the 2023 Filmfare OTT Awards, Shah
received the Best Supporting Actress award in a Web Original Film for
her performance.

August 2022 saw the release of the second season of 'Delhi Crime',
based on the chapter "Moon Gazer" from retired police officer Neeraj
Kumar's book 'Khaki Files'. Addressing new themes such as class
prejudice, the show opened to positive reviews and Shah again received
favourable comments for holding the show together with both power and
vulnerability. According to 'Vogue's' Taylor Antrim, Shah is
"tremendous in the role" as she "seizes your attention" in her
reprisal of Vartika Chaturvedi, who is "intensely serious; fearsome to
her subordinates, who call her 'Madam Sir'; and clearly burdened by
her job". She received a nomination for the International Emmy Award
for Best Actress. Shah next appeared as a strict physician in the
medical comedy 'Doctor G', alongside Ayushmann Khurrana and Rakul
Preet Singh, for which she was nominated for the Filmfare Award for
Best Supporting Actress.

The drama 'Three of Us' (2023), directed by Avinash Arun, stars Shah
as Shailaja, a woman who, after being diagnosed with early-stage
dementia, decides to make a trip to revisit her childhood and confront
her past. Shah said she had to fully immerse in the story to play the
fragility and vulnerable state of the character, which was a departure
from her recent parts. Co-starring Swanand Kirkire as her husband and
Jaideep Ahlawat as her childhood sweetheart, the film was noted by
critics, who highlighted the performances of the three leads. Prateek
Sur of 'Outlook' described 'Three of Us' as the best film of the year,
calling it "a masterpiece in acting". Udita Jhunjhunwala of 'Mint'
observed: "Shah opts to play Shailaja with childlike awe and wonder.
It’s a curious choice, but the actress owns it." Her performance
earned her a second Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress (shared
with Rani Mukerji for 'Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway').

Shah will next reteam with Jaideep Ahlawat in the thriller 'Hisaab',
produced by her husband.


                        Artistry and reception                        
======================================================================
Shah has been described by critics and the media as one of India's
finest actresses. Describing herself as an instinctive actor, she has
confessed to not approaching acting as a craft but rather becoming a
person and living each character's struggle, which often proves
taxing. She explained her technique: "Every role takes away a part of
me. It's exhausting, it drains me completely, and then enriches me.
It's a cycle, but I don't know any other way". Known for her
understated acting style, Shah has been noted for her big, expressive
eyes and her ability to emote through minimal facial expressions and
gestures, and often through silence. Devansh Sharma described Shah's
use of silence as "a leitmotif in all her performances", and Sneha
Bengani commented: "Shah has always thrived in silences. Through them,
she communicates with easy effortlessness what words almost always
fail to." In view of her preference for minimalism, she has gained a
reputation for asking directors to cut her lines and scenes. Shah
explains that cinema being a powerful visual medium which captures
actors' faces, sometimes not much spoken text is required and is often
redundant. Due to her eagerness to be thoroughly versed in details
about her scripts and parts, Shah often keeps badgering her directors
with questions during filming.

Highly selective about her roles and unwilling to compromise her
artistic integrity, Shah chooses parts by instinct and maintains that
unless completely consumed by a project, she will not commit to it.
She does not give importance to the length of a role, but more "the
mettle, the potency and the relevance" it has in the film. Some of
Shah's characters throughout her career were of women older than
herself. Her first roles on television when she was in her early
twenties, including Savy, the mother of a teenager in 'Hasratein',
made several filmmakers offer her parts of women that far surpassed
her actual age. She admitted that 'Hasratein' had damaged her career
in this regard. On one occasion, she had almost played the role of a
mother to Amitabh Bachchan, who was twice her age, before she left the
project. Although she was initially excited about the acting challenge
in playing mature women, she decided to stop accepting such parts,
especially after playing the middle-aged part of Bachchan's wife and
Akshay Kumar's mother in 'Waqt' (2005), because filmmakers sought to
typecast her in similar parts. She explained her choice of 'Gandhi, My
Father' (2007) was different as she played Kasturba Gandhi from the
character's early adulthood into her later years. 'Dil Dhadakne Do'
(2015) was another exception where she was so impressed with the
character she could not refuse it.

Shah was one of the leading actresses of Indian television before she
left it as she was dissatisfied with the content. Following the
positive reaction to her performance in 'Satya' in 1998, she expected
more film work coming her way whereas the offers she received at the
time comprised mostly small character parts. While initially bothered
by the limited work available to her in Hindi films, Shah has over
years come to terms with the realisation that satisfactory roles would
come to her every once in a while. This resulted in numerous gaps
between her film appearances. The rise of digital streaming platforms,
however, rejuvenated Shah's career, with parts not otherwise available
in films and often written specially for her. 'Delhi Crime' proved to
be a major turning point in her career, as it brought an influx of
film offers, mostly of leading roles which would seldom come her way
before. Consequently, she embarked on the busiest period of her
professional life, working on six projects throughout 2020 in films
and roles the kind of which she had longed for. She credited digital
platforms with giving her opportunity to invest more in her parts:
"The web-series format gives me hours to experiment, explore and
indulge and understand my character's nuances."

The reception to Shah's performances has been positive from her
initial television work. Her early screen persona on television was
that of a woman who, according to Chatura Poojari, is "homely, chatty
but with a sensible head firmly screwed onto her shoulders—a regular
Indian woman who deals with life by wearing a velvet glove over an
iron hand". Shah believes her middle-class background has helped her
shape a personality which makes her characters relatable. A 1999
article by 'The Indian Express' said that she "pulls off each and
every character with absolute ease". Subhash K. Jha describes her as
"an impossibly skilled actress" and, on another occasion, "an actress
who forces you to watch her". Speaking of her eyes, Devansh Sharma
wrote in a review of 'Once Again' (2018), "Her loquacious eyes express
rage with as much ease as they do love." Reviewing 'Jalsa' (2022),
Monika Rawal Kukreja was highly impressed with Shah's use of just her
eyes and expressions to emote. Author and journalist Aparna Pednekar
wrote, "Shah's 'au naturale' performances come from an instinctive,
savage space, with an abundance of layers simmering beneath a placid
smile and soft-spoken personality".


                              Accolades                               
======================================================================
Shah won a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her
performance in 'The Last Lear'. She has won two Filmfare Awards: Best
Actress (Critics) for 'Satya' (1998) and Best Actress (Short) for
'Juice' (2017), and was thrice nominated for the Best Supporting
Actress, for 'Satya', 'Waqt', and 'Dil Dhadakne Do'. Additional Indian
accolades include two Screen Awards, two Stardust Awards, and a Zee
Cine Award. Moreover, her work has garnered her international
recognition, including Best Actress prizes at the Tokyo International
Film Festival (for 'Gandhi, My Father', 2007), Asian Academy Creative
Awards (for 'Delhi Crime', 2019), and Indian Film Festival of
Melbourne (for 'Jalsa', 2022) -->


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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shefali_Shah