Shefali Shah’s casting as Akshay Kumar’s on-screen mother in Waqt: The Race Against Time (2005) came with a warning from the film’s director — her husband, Vipul Amrutlal Shah. In a new interview with Bollywood Hungama, the actor recalled that he told her not to take the role, and that she did it anyway.
Amitabh Bachchan’s recommendation
Shah said the counterweight to Vipul Shah’s caution was a recommendation from Amitabh Bachchan. “He told me don’t do it but Amitji recommended it. And also, I wanted to do it,” she said.
Her decision, she explained, was not based on career calculation. It was driven by wanting to prove herself as a performer:
- The role let her become someone unlike herself in stage, look and nature.
- Bachchan’s backing made the offer feel significant.
- She had no manager or professional advisor at the time.
The mother-only phase
Directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, Waqt starred Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar as a father and son, with Priyanka Chopra in the cast. Shah played Akshay’s mother, the role that became her calling card.
Shah admitted that the choice had consequences. After the film, offers began to narrow into maternal roles, and some required her to play characters older than her own age. “I did face that problem later that they wanted to offer me mother only, nothing else,” she said.
She drew a distinction between refusing a type and refusing a mismatch. The issue, she said, was not the mother’s role itself; it was the industry’s habit of calling the same performer back to the same age bracket after one successful turn. “I don’t have a problem being a mother but give me a mother’s role which is my children’s age,” she explained. “Because placement is a real thing.”
Why the casting memory matters
For Hindi cinema watchers, the anecdote explains a familiar pattern: a striking supporting performance becomes a performer’s template. Shah’s reasoning at the time was explicitly about craft — she wanted to play someone unlike herself. But she now reads the cost clearly.
Her account offers a measure for casting decisions beyond the initial offer: ask not just whether a role is good, but what the role will make the industry remember you for. That is the difference between a one-off challenge and a placement.
That framing also reframes the original advice. Vipul Shah was not rejecting the film; he was warning against the label the film could attach. Shah chose the experience anyway, and then had to negotiate the label for years afterward.
In Waqt, the family drama turned on responsibility and maturity, and Shah’s presence alongside Bachchan and Kumar gave the story its emotional centre. The memory of that role followed her into negotiations long after the film left theatres.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
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