Shefali Shah: Jaya Bachchan was first choice for Waqt
Shefali Shah revisits Waqt in her memoir, revealing Jaya Bachchan was the original choice and Amitabh Bachchan recommended her for the role.
Shefali Shah is revisiting one of the most talked-about casting decisions of her filmography, and the backstory is more layered than audiences knew. In her debut memoir The Audacity of Being: A Sort-of Memoir, she writes that she was never the intended choice for Sumi in the 2005 family drama Waqt: The Race Against Time.
The role was meant for someone else
Shah was in her early thirties when she played Sumi, the mother of a character essayed by Akshay Kumar, who was older than her in real life. The casting raised eyebrows at the time. In the memoir, she says director Vipul Shah, her husband, originally wanted Jaya Bachchan for the role. Hema Malini was also considered, but the idea was dropped because it felt too close to the 2003 Amitabh Bachchan-Hema Malini film Baghban.
When the early choices did not work out, Amitabh Bachchan, who was already locked in to play the father, recommended Shefali. “Now, that was something Vipul could not turn down,” she writes.
Vipul Shah warned her against it
Shah fell in love with Sumi after watching the play Aavjo Vhala, Fari Malishu, written and directed by Aatish Kapadia, on which the film is based. But when she asked Vipul to consider her, he refused, warning that the part would label her as a mother on screen forever.
She still wanted the role, seeing it as a chance to work with Amitabh Bachchan and her husband. The decision, she says, had consequences she did not anticipate.
Typecast almost immediately
In an interview with PTI, Shah admitted that she believed people would admire the choice, treating it as proof that she could play much older characters. Instead, the industry read it differently. “After Waqt, I was bombarded with ‘mommy’ roles,” she writes in the book.
Shah says she feared becoming the “next Nirupa Roy”, the late star who became synonymous with self-sacrificing mother roles in films such as Deewar and Amar Akbar Anthony. Looking back, she describes the part as a decision she still values for the experience but one that almost certainly shaped the offers that followed.
- Jaya Bachchan was the original choice for Sumi.
- Hema Malini was considered next, but the Baghban comparison ended that idea.
- Amitabh Bachchan’s recommendation made Shefali’s casting possible.
Why it matters now
The Waqt chapter is a clear example of how quickly Bollywood can place a woman into the mother track. Shah was a working actor in her thirties, not a newcomer, and the role still changed how she was seen. The memoir gives readers a chance to see the gap between an actor’s intention and an industry’s response.
The Audacity of Being: A Sort-of Memoir, priced at ₹599 and published by Bloomsbury India, is currently available across online and offline stores.
Source: Hindustan Times
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