In matter of a month, Shefali Shah went from being the director of a short film featuring her to a pivotal character in Alia Bhatt’s first production, Darlings, director Anubhuti Kashyap’s Doctor G (backed by Junglee Pictures) with Ayushmann Khurrana, and being a parallel lead in director Suresh Triveni’s Jalsa, co-starring Vidya Balan. The latter went on floors recently.

Calling her choices impulsive and instinctive, the actress elaborates on what she looks for in a project. She says, “I don’t know the boxes, but it has to turn me inside out; it has to hit me in the gut. My decisions are impulsive and instinctive, not based on any math of where this film can take me and what it can do for my image. If I find it churning my insides, I do it.” She adds, “Professionally, I have not been in a happier space than this. But I waited really long for it, so be it. Things have changed and I am being offered strong lead and parallel lead roles.”

Shefali shares, “I have some fabulous scripts to work on and really good directors to team up with. People write roles for me which is great. You know, I was lucky to have found appreciation for my work, but it didn’t translate into what I wanted. Waiting for something worthwhile was tough, but after a certain stage of maturity, I realised that the work I wanted to do would come rarely, but I also knew it would be worth the wait.”

Shefali, known for her stellar performance in the Emmy Award-winner Delhi Crime, is looking forward to Jalsa as it will have her sharing screen space with another powerhouse performer. “I really want to know what it will be like to share the screen with Vidya Balan, who I admire tremendously,” she says, adding, “I adore her, totally. I have met her a few times in the past socially, but we have never collaborated on something. Jalsa is the perfect story for that.”

Besides the excitement of teaming up with a contemporary, the actress is working with the new-generation actress Alia Bhatt as a co-star and producer. Shefali says, “Darlings, a fantastic project by Jasmeet K Reen, is in such a fun space. Alia, Vijay Verma and Roshan Mathew... It’s a fun team to work with. It’s also a genre that I have never done before. In fact, people have an image of me being this very serious person, so I think they will be surprised to see this wicked dark comedy.”