New Delhi, Shefali Shah says her husband Vipul Shah had advised her against taking the role of a mother in his 2005 directorial “Waqt” when she was barely in her 30s but she ended up doing the part after other casting choices fell through and Amitabh Bachchan recommended her name.
Vipul originally wanted veteran actor Jaya Bachchan for the role, according to the 53-year-old actor.
Hema Malini was also considered, but the idea was eventually dropped as it felt too similar to the Amitabh Bachchan-Hema Malini starrer “Baghban”, which was released in 2003.
In the movie, she played Akshay Kumar’s mother though she was younger than him in real life. Her casting raised eyebrows at the time and ended up affecting the kind of roles that came her way. “The mother, Sumi, was the anchor of the story the silent strength between the father and the son. Vipul had originally wanted Jaya ji, but that did not work out. Hema Malini ji was another great choice, but it felt too much like a repeat of ‘Baghban’, a film that Amit ji and Hema ji had done only a while ago,” Shah wrote. “I was naive enough to think that people would see it as, you know, it would be admired. Like, oh, wow, she can do this too, as an actor. She’s as old as this, and then she can play a role which is much older than her. But that’s not how it works.
Shah has now looked back at this chapter in her debut book, “The Audacity of Being: A Sort-of Memoir”. Shah said she fell in love with the character of Sumi after watching the play and eventually asked Vipul if she could play the role. “He flat out said no and insisted it would not work, warning me that it would label me as a ‘mother’ on screen forever,” she wrote. It’s absolutely not how it works,” Shah said.
In an interview with PTI, Shah acknowledged that playing an older character at that stage of her career had a lasting professional impact.
