'I fell in love with the story': Shefali Shah on 'Ajeeb Daastaans'

Shefali Shah may be known as one of the best performers in Bollywood with her roles in Satya, Dil Dhadakne Do, and Delhi Crime but the actor says she feels terrified when working on a new project. The actor appears alongside Manav Kaul in a short directed by director Kayoze Irani in one of the segments of Netflix's anthology Ajeeb Daastaans.

"Every day, I am terrified. I have this fear that the director will say action and I will stand there dumbfound. I remember Kayoze meeting me and narrating me the one liner. I said ok but he felt I was joking... I fell in love with the script", Shah said during a virtual press conference. Shah said during the rehearsals, she was amazed to see how her co-star Manav Kaul knew everything about sign language.

"I was like Oh my god I know nothing'. I was completely lost because he was so bang on", she said. "When I saw the rough edit of the film, I felt Manav was beautiful and Kayoze has done a great job as a director but he messed up on one account, he shouldn't have cast me. I felt (I was) such a wrong casting", she added.

Kaul said that he initially felt intimidated by Shah's towering presence as an actor so he decided to just do his best. I don't think to be standing in front of her. You have to do a lot more, she does it all. I was very excited that I got to share the screen with her. I have been a big fan of her, he said, adding that it took him two-three months to master the sign language.

Aditi Rao Hydari, who will be seen in Ghaywan's film Geeli Pucchi alongside Konkana Sen Sharma, said she was keen to work with the "Masaan" director. It was a new world for me. I enjoyed the process. It was very exciting. There was an innocence and honesty in the way he has written the characters, she said, adding, she was excited to be working with Sharma.

Ghaywan said he had the story idea of the short film while working on "Masaan". "I love making short films because I believe you get a lot of freedom in making them. When we started writing, we had writers on board and we had this dialogue in the film  Gilli Buchi' and it is a connecting factor and we thought it is good as a title."