Woman Up S3 EXCLUSIVE: Shefali Shah reveals why she turned down Neerja, Kapoor & Sons

Shefali Shah talks about her roles and more in an exclusive chat with Pinkvilla Woman up Season 3.

By Priyakshi Sharma

Updated on Mar 03, 2022 | 01:05 AM IST | 310.8K

Woman Up S3 EXCLUSIVE: Shefali Shah reveals why she turned down Neerja, Kapoor & Sons (

Pinkvilla has always been about celebrating womanhood in all its glory. And with International Women’s Day being just around the corner, we are back with the third season of our special annual segment, Woman Up, where we delve deeper into the lives of female artists, their choices, their vulnerabilities, and of course, their talent. Speaking of talent, the very first guest on the series is none other than the beautiful Shefali Shah. While we conversed about several things starting from personal to professional life, we also asked the actress the reason she turned down the scripts of blockbuster films Kapoor and Sons and Neerja. Read on to know what she has to say.

In an exclusive conversation with Pinkvilla, Shefali said, “Both the scripts were very very good and both the roles were very very powerful. The only thing is I had just done Dil Dhadakne Do. And I did not want to be put into another bracket of, ‘oh, okay, so she plays the mother to people who are a couple of years younger than her.’ I am a mom. I am a mom of a 20-year-old and I have no qualms playing a mother to that. “

When asked what about Dil Dhadakne Do intrigued her to play a mother, the actress stated, “When I read the script…and this is a very strange thing because I remember Zoya (Akhtar) and Reema (Kagti) and Javed (Akhtar) Saab telling me when the film got made, that it was the weakest-written role on paper. And when I read it, I thought, the strongest roles on paper, first was Pluto and second was Neelam Mehra. And I thought there was so much to her. There were so many layers, and there was so much to her. And, I was very excited to be working with Zoya, and the entire cast and crew and I was going to be traveling. What more could I ask for?”