Batting for stipulated work hours in the industry, ‘Delhi Crime 3’ star Shefali Shah on how long shoot days go unchecked, affecting actors’ output and the crew
Shefali Shah
How long does it take for an actor to find her way back to a character when a new season is set to roll? Shefali Shah, who returns as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi in the third season of Delhi Crime, says she wouldn’t know, for a simple reason — she never let the character leave her system. “There are parts that you do and move on. This is something I can’t move on from,” she starts.
Her emotional attachment to the Netflix series is evident. But with the attachment comes nervousness, even though she has played the astute cop, who rarely misses a thing, for two seasons, even bagging an International Emmy nomination in 2023. “My biggest fear is that I’ll let Vartika and Delhi Crime down,” she admits candidly, before saying how the show elicits conflicting emotions in her. “When I get to know we’re doing another season, I am the happiest. But I don’t let go of that fear. I just surrender.”
Surrendering to scripts and characters is something every artiste swears by. But surrendering to the industry’s functioning style is something more and more actors are voicing out against. With Deepika Padukone’s recent episode opening a dialogue about work-life balance and stipulated working hours in the industry, many actors — including Sonakshi Sinha and Konkona Sensharma — have batted for regulation of working conditions on sets. In an unregulated workplace like the film industry, can there be a way for actors to negotiate working hours?
“We need to have this discussion desperately,” emphasises Shah. “We are reasonable people. So, we realise [the need to accommodate] if a location is not available tomorrow or something has to be done now. But it can’t be the norm.”
Shah says, “I take one-and-a-half hours to reach the set and the same time to return. For those hours on set, I give it my all. I go back home, and hopefully, I can go to the gym because that’s part of my job. Then I will shower, eat, go back to the script, and then wake up the next morning for another day of work. How many hours of sleep am I getting? And how are you expecting me to come with my A-game?”
The actor echoes what Sinha told mid-day recently about the crew suffering more than the actors (What takes 14 hours on set can be done in eight, Nov 1). “On one of the last films I shot for, which had a 10-hour schedule, some of the ADs said, ‘Thank God, she leaves because that way we get to go.’ The rest of the crew doesn’t get paid extra [for the overtime]. Is it fair to them? There are sets where lightmen come at four in the morning and there’s no system of breakfast for them.”
What only makes matters worse is the disparity of treatment between male and female stars. Some stars have pointed out how the same demands made by male actors are readily accommodated, but viewed as a problem when asked for by a female counterpart. Shah agrees, noting, “We [female actors] are talking about eight hours and 10 hours contractually, but have we even accounted for the number of hours some male actors come late? That’s not even considered!” She emphasises that such long working hours over years can cause burnout, leaving artistes mentally and creatively bankrupt. "Once, somebody said, ‘I am made to wait,’ I replied, ‘I am paid to wait.’ When you have taken my dates, you use them, you make me do a scene, you make me wait in my van, it’s fine because it’s part of my job, but don’t keep pushing me against the wall because at some point, I am going to have to push back. I could never say no. I also have this fitoor ki masa aaraha hai, karate jao. I have done 20-hour shifts. But it’s going to take a toll. Even I don’t realise it, it’s going to show somewhere because I am not going to be there fully. My brain would have half-stopped working," she said.
But undisciplined sets are not all that we’re talking about. There are the other kinds too — the ones that spark joy and creative stimulation. Like the one led by Delhi Crime 3 director Tanuj Chopra, where Shah was joined by cast regulars Rajesh Tailang, Rasika Dugal, and Jaya Bhattacharya, as well as new entrants to the universe Sayani Gupta, Mita Vashisht, and of course, Huma Qureshi, who plays the antagonist in the police procedural drama. “Sadly Huma and I just had two scenes. I wish we had more work but when I heard that she is doing the series, I was so excited. When we met — be it Huma, Sayani, Mita ma’am — there was no such thing as breaking the ice. It was almost like being a part of something we wanted to create together. It’s one of the most powerful female ensemble casts you’ll ever see.”
In the film industry, sets populated by women have historically been called many things — difficult, filled with insecurity, and almost all wrapped up in misogyny. She smiles as she describes this set as a place of sisterhood. “I don’t want to undermine male actors because I have worked with some amazing ones, but I have felt a silent sisterhood. I feel that for other people around me, and the same was true [on this set]. You have to see how happy I get when I am with all these beautiful women.”
Mira Nair with her son and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani
Even though Shefali Shah hasn’t met Zohran Mamdani, she feels a bond with the Mayor-elect of New York City. The actor, who worked with Mamdani’s mother Mira Nair in ‘Monsoon Wedding’ (2001), shares, “From the time we did ‘Monsoon Wedding’ to date, I get a Christmas or New Year’s card [from Nair], which has a picture of all three of them. So, I have seen him from his childhood to now. I don’t know him personally, but it [his recent win] feels so good.”
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