Both Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear and Vipul Shah’s Waqt: The Race Against Time feature Amitabh Bachchan and Shefali Shah in supporting roles. The National Award-winning actress discussed her relationship with the legendary actor in honor of his 80th birthday. His birthday serves as a reminder of the incredible gift Mr Bachchan has been to his fans, his countrymen, and Indian culture as a whole. Shefali declares, “I love Amit ji. I totally love Amit Ji.”
In an interview, Shefali revealed that her filmmaker husband Vipul Shah had opposed her participation in the film Waqt: The Race Against Time, which starred Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra. It was adapted from a stage play. The play and the character resonated with me deeply, and there was also the inherent irony inherent in my profession as an actor: the point is to play a variety of characters. Whoever doesn’t want to be the center of attention is the one who gets to play. A person’s age is thus merely a factor. I was overjoyed when Amit Ji suggested to Vipul that he ask Shefali to take care of it. I was giddy with anticipation, but Vipul cautioned me to stop. To paraphrase the role I played, “It’s not going to be right for you,” because I was actually playing Akshay’s mother. Of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with Mr. Bachchan and Mr. Vipul in a film together. The reason I did it was because of that, “Shefali explains.”
The Doctor G actress revealed a fun fact about her time on set: “Amit Ji calls me making.” When we were filming Waqt, I followed my usual practice of sifting through props on set and selecting my favorites. As this was Vipul’s set, I felt completely free to express myself. “I don’t think you should do this; the photo should be thrown away and the parda should be changed,” he said. So, I was giving him (Vipul Shah) some gyaan like this only one day and didn’t even notice that Amit Ji was standing behind us. Finally, he exclaimed (laughs). Now he always refers to me as “making.”
Shefali also discusses her recent meeting with Amitabh Bachchan. Getting COVID and making a post seemed like the sensible thing to do, so I did it. Shefali claims that for “at least ten or fifteen days straight,” he sent her a morning text message to see how she was doing. She continues, “Then he got sick and I was texting him. However, I was overjoyed. Incredulous, I had to take a second look. I would wake up to a new message from him every day asking how I was doing and urging me to “please get well soon, please rest.” That’s incredible!
