Acclaimed actress Shefali Shah believes her biggest strength is her ability to laugh at herself.
The ‘Delhi Crime’ actress dropped an old clip of herself from her early days as an actress on her IG, owning the flaws in front of the camera.
Looking back at those days, Shefali wrote in the caption, “When I started acting, I had no clue what I was doing or why. But I had dreams. Dreams fuelled by what I saw on screen. Dreams woven by YRF, dreams of being that vision in white on a terrace full of rose petals.”
Sharing she was smitten by a female superstar back in those days, and hence tried to act like her on-screen. She added, ” I was smitten by this mega superstar. She was everything dreams are made of. She made us laugh, cry and she made us dream. She was everything I aspired to be. I was flattered When people said I looked like her and my self-esteem soared. Naively, I believed all I had to do now was act like her. So I began copying her. And the more I did, the more people said I reminded them of her. That was a huge ego boost. This clip is from somewhere in between trying to be her, and definitely not being myself. But suddenly I realised I wasn’t a good mimic. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t be her. No one could.”
However, she later decided to come into her own – “So I dropped the act. And Along with it, I dropped the only crutch I had and I now had to stand on my own feet”, the ‘Jalsa’ actress penned.
Shefali also had some advice for her younger self that went like this, “Well, I want to tell this girl I see on screen that it’s fine to turn away from the audience or the camera. Everything does not have to be about your face. Look at the person you are talking to(not into oblivion). Listen(in a scene and in life) Lower your pitch you are talking to a person not a whale.”
