Shefali Shah felt "ashamed" to talk about being touched inappropriately in a market

After a super successful year in 2022, Shefali Shah is gearing up for more interesting projects this year. While discussing work and what she plans to do in terms of maneuvering her career with projects she’d like to be associated with, the actress recalled an incident that happened long ago at a crowded place. She revealed that she was touched inappropriately and was made to feel like “crap”. She, however, decided to never talk about it to anyone. She said that she was ashamed of it.

Shefali recently joined a podcast where she spoke about her breakthrough performance in Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding. In the film, she spoke about her character Ria Verma, who was sexually abused as a child. The film also starred Naseeruddin Shah, Lillete Dubey, Vasundhara Das, Vijay Raaz, Rajat Kapoor, Randeep Hooda, and Soni Razdan among others.

On how she built that character, Shefali admitted that everyone has gone through it. “Everyone’s gone through it. I remember walking in a crowded market and being touched inappropriately and feeling crap about it. And, never ever saying anything because I wouldn’t say it was guilt but it’s just…shameful.”

When the host questioned if she felt like she invited it somehow, Shefali admitted and said, “Yes. I agree with you. A lot of people think, did I do anything? You feel guilty, and shameful and you feel ‘bhool jao (forget it). Shove it under the carpet kind of thing. Honestly, I don’t think I gave it so much thought that it’s an important conversation to speak about. It was just something that struck straight inside me and the entire film.”

Monsoon Wedding was based on romantic entanglements between people as family members come together to attend a wedding in Delhi. It premiered in the Marché du Film section of the Cannes Film Festival of 2001. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award and fetched the Golden Lion award at the Venice International Film Festival.

Shefali Shah has had a celebrated filmography with several hit films and OTT shows to her credit. In the past few years, she admits to getting meatier roles and characters that have depth where there is a lot of scope for experimentation. She gave three back-to-back hits last year with Jalsa, Darlings, and Doctor G.

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