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"I know!" she laughs. "It's very embarrassing when he called me that all during my husband's film Waqt and now during The Last Lear. Maybe because I was the producer's wife? To my horror he called me that during Last Lear too.
On the first day of the shoot he warned everybody, 'Don't go by her face, Because by and by she'll start changing everything on the sets…Hey,I don't do that! Of course I was critical on Vipul's set. That was my home production. But on another set I wouldn't cross the line. "
After Gandhi My Father Shefali Shah plays her producer Anil Kapoor's wife in the Subhash Ghai production Black & White.
Is she worried about the leap in intention?
"Not really," says Shefali. "Black & White is not a running-around-trees film. It's again a socially relevant film. Anilji is the hero and I'm the conventional leading lady. But I don't wear makeup, good clothes and sing songs."
Shefali informs that it was Anil who recommended Shefali. "But had it not been a good role I wouldn't have done Black & White. But it's not Gandhi My Father. Not at all. …nor is it The Last Lear, the English-language film that I've completed with Rituparno Ghosh."
The vastly talented and grossly under-used Shefali Shah is on the threshold of a new beginning in her career.
Her role as Kasturba in Feroz Abbas Khan's Gandhi My Father is already garnering rave reviews. In fact Akshaye Khanna has gone on-record to say it's the best performance in India by a female actor.
"I know Akshaye said that. And I'm deeply grateful. We've just returned from the film's world premiere and the response was overwhelming. Unfortunately Nelson Mandela couldn't come due to ill health. That was really sad, though he did send a message.
But the South African president and the whole cabinet was there. After the screening there was a stunned silence. They all told me they couldn't believe I look so different in person. A local lady who could barely speak English told me I made her cry.
I feel this film goes beyond boundaries. It's really moving. The premiere was unbelievable. Gandhi My Father is about selfless creation. Every actor and technician believed in what they were doing.
They thought of the film, not of their own interests. We all got an insight into lives that went way beyond art and acting. "
Shefali has been losing weight. "And so has my husband Vipul. I finally look the way I want to."
God forbid, Shefali gets typecast as an old woman after Gandhi My Father, a la Rohini Hattangadi after Attenborough's Gandhi.
"No way!" avers Shefali. "Because I'm the young Kasturba in most of the film. And the cinematographer has made me look look better than ever before….I don't think after this role the industry will typecast me. And even if they do, it's up to me to take or leave their offers. I've always been choosy anyway. Even if I do one film every two years it has to be something special."
Gandhi, she considers, her most important film so far. "Though I feel I could still have done better. I've never been more focused. Obviously I want to be appreciated. And I want the appreciation to be translated into a lot more. I'm at a stage where I think good things will happen to me. People are now willing to cast me in main leads.Somewhere I think I lacked the focus earlier."
Last Lear is another very special for Shefali. "I'm one of the central characters in both Gandhi My Father and The Last Lear. In Ritu's film I play my age and someone who looks after Amitji's character. I must tell you, after Vipul's unit, Ritu's was the most warm and organized unit I've worked with…very caring.
Bade pyar se thande dimaag se kaam hua. I've worked with productions where scenes are written on the sets. Sometimes I've played a character who has nothing to do with the scene given to me."
And yet she did a bit role in Yashraj Films' Mohabbatein.
"I don't regret doing that. It was a small role. But there was one good scene. After Gandhi and The Last Lear I may not do it. I took a break from acting to look after my babies, got back into shape. And now this is like my comeback. I've never felt better."
Have you seen Kareena Kapoor off late. The once chubby lass has shed her baby fat and looking all lean and mean now. Has she tuned anorexic?
Filmmaker Karan Johar is making possible what has so far seemed highly unlikely – the return of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol as a couple on the silver screen.
