Culture & Living
Star of the International Emmy-winning show Delhi Crime, Shefali Shah opens up about being a part of the show, international recognition, and censorship of OTT platforms in India
Netflix's original series Delhi Crime made history by becoming the first Indian web series to win an International Emmy award. The seven-part series based on the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, created by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Richie Mehta, was awarded the ‘Best Drama’ at the ceremony that was held online recently. Needless to say, the cast and crew has been in celebration mode ever since the announcement. “I remember screaming so loudly (when they announced the win) that I’m sure my entire team, which is spread across different continents, probably heard me clearly,” says lead actor Shefali Shah, “Since then, I’ve just been screaming in my head. I’m in a state of complete euphoria and exhilaration.”
After reiterating how ecstatic she is (she firmly placed herself at a ‘billion times raised to a billion’, on a scale of one-to-screaming from the rooftops), the actor recalls what it was like when she was first heard about the show and her character.
“It was an immediate ‘yes’ from me,” she says, “I knew I wanted to take on the role within five minutes of meeting Richie [Mehta, writer-director of the series]. He didn’t even have to narrate or anything. He was just talking to me and I remember I kept crying for some reason. I told him to ignore that and just give me the script. I asked for a couple of days to familiarise myself with the story because there was just so much material to go through. I read the first episode as soon as I reached back home and I finished the seats within the next hour and a half. I immediately called him and said ‘I have to do this’.”
The police procedural is based on the investigative process in the aftermaths of the horrific rape that took place in Delhi in December of 2012. The chilling details of the case rocked the nation that had largely become desensitised to cases of violence against women. It goes without saying that it doesn’t make for an easy watch (a fact that this writer learned the hard way when she binge-watched the show while she was alone at a hotel room in Gurgaon and couldn’t go to sleep).
After rightfully admonishing me for my life choices, Shah expresses how she tackled the traumatising subject matter. “To be very honest, I don’t think I have gotten out of the show mentally yet, and I don’t know how to do that,” she admits. Shah played the role of Deputy Commissioner of Police Vartika Chaturvedi (based on the real-life DCP Chhaya Sharma, who was in charge of investigating the case). Taking on a role that is based on a real incident and involves real-life people as main characters is a challenge on its own. Shah agrees, and adds, “I am an instinctive actor, but there was a lot of prep that went behind creating this character. Our director had a fantastic blueprint ready for us. He had already done years of research and I had the honour and privilege of talking to Chhaya (Sharma) ma’am and asking her questions.”
The actor goes on to describe the tremendous amount of care and effort that went behind in creating the urgency of the investigation, compressed down to five tightly wound days. “A lot went into creating her. When you work on all of this, for hours and hours, and then you go in front of the camera, the research that you’ve done becomes a part of your subconscious, like you’ve actually lived it. And then is where the magic happens. It’s not practiced, or rehearsed, or calculated. The story is split over five days, so every single moment is accounted for and every single moment had to be taken into account. How many hours has she slept? When has she taken a break? When was the last time she had a break in the case? When was the last time she had coffee? Every single, small detail mattered, to create the character. I can’t even begin to tell you what all went behind creating her. This has been a learning curve for me. I’ve never worked like this. And I don’t think I see myself working in any other way but like this in the future.”
Her hard work paid off, as she laughingly recounts, when she found out that people at Sundance 2019 thought she was the real police officer who investigated the case and that the show was essentially a documentary.
Shows like Delhi Crime are a product of the relatively free run given to digital streaming platforms in India, something that might change soon. A recent ordinance by the government declared that all digital news, audio, and visual content platforms would now be under the jurisdiction of the Information & Broadcasting ministry. This has raised concerns over censorship in the name of regulation, as many existing web series talk about the oppressive politics of the ruling party and that might not fly under the new rules. Speaking on the importance of creative freedom in content creation, Shah says, “As regular people, we have a responsibility towards what we want to express and consume. There are filters (other than censorship) that we can put in place to monitor the kind of content we watch. When I didn’t want my kids to watch something, I put those firewalls in place. It has to be a collaborative thing. It’s not black and white and it should not be one person making these decisions. We have to keep in mind the creative freedom, as well as social responsibility.”
But things are not as bleak, she says, as OTT platforms have already given, and will continue to give, a space for content-driven TV shows and movies to thrive. “The best thing about these platforms is that there is no restriction of a star system, in that there is no ‘hero’ or ‘heroine’,” she says, “There has been a shift like that in mainstream cinema too, but there is more freedom in OTT content. It’s a growth. There is more representation across the board that can be seen in web series.”
She might be celebrating a huge win or being a part of a successful web series, and working on many in the future, but she hasn't had time to catch up on all the content that people have been buzzing about. “Ever since the pandemic hit, I’ve been unusually busy. First with taking care of the house and then prepping for the two short films that I’ve directed. But I loved Fleabag!”
Delhi Crime also stars Rasika Duggal, Aakash Dahiya, Rajesh Tailang, and Adil Hussain
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