DELIGHTING IN THE DETAIL

Her attention to craft has helped actor SHEFALI SHAH become the cynosure of modern entertainment

- Suhani Singh

LAST YEAR, AFTER SHEFALI SHAH wrapped up a film shoot, the crew brought her a cake to cut. It was shaped like a question mark. The idea came from Suresh Triveni, director of the upcoming film, Jalsa, also starring Vidya Balan. “He was like ‘You are KBC [Kaun Banega Crorepati], man. You just don’t stop asking questions’,” says Shah. The actress’s filmography boasts of many highlights—there’s Satya (1998), Monsoon Wedding (2001), Dil Dhadakne Do (2015) and Once Again (2018), there’s the short film Juice (2017) and, most recently, there was the critically acclaimed Netflix series, Delhi Crime (2019-). Shah is proud of her reputation as someone who chews her “director’s brain over every line, every moment”. “Either you convince me or I convince you,” she says.

In Human, a medical drama that recently released on Disney+ Hotstar, the director on the receiving end of her incessant probing happens to be her husband— Vipul Amrutlal Shah. The two have collaborated before (Waqt: The Race Against Time in 2005 and Commando 2 in 2017), but Human was a show specifically created with Shah in mind as the protagonist. “Vipul respects me too much to come to me with anything that’s not worth my while and I also respect him too much to ever ask him to make something for me,” says Shah.

SHEFALI SHAH'S new medical drama, Human, recently released on Disney+ Hotstar