Exclusive: Shefali Shah and Vir Das on what it is like to experience mid-career success

Shah and Das share laughs at the Netflix office. Pics/Ashish Raje

When Shefali Shah and Vir Das are in conversation, they share the easy camaraderie of two friends and collaborators. One wonders why they have not been cast yet for an "actors on actors" talk show segment.

On a breezy Monday evening at Netflix India's Mumbai office, they're waiting in anticipation for the 2023 International Emmy Awards, where they have been nominated in the Best Actress and Best Comedy categories. Das, 44, an avowed fan of the Satya and Darlings actress, is certain she will win. "I hope we both do," Shah, 50, says to him.

When the actor and comedian's respective sense of craft is juxtaposed, what emerges is an intriguing contrast. Shah, who is nominated for the multi-season police procedural drama Delhi Crime, is known for her restrained silence during intense moments. Das is recognised for his outspokenness - a trait that has earned him his second International Emmy nod, for his comedy special, Landing.

Shefali Shah and Vir Das

These aspects are reflective of something deeper. "I'm not outspoken, I'm just talking about the world, because I am a part of it, and I will speak up about what I see," he says. Shah says the privilege of performing before the camera is that it captures the smallest of nuances. "When I can say something in two words, I don't want to use four. And if I can say something without words, I won't even use two. What is unsaid and left to the imagination is far more beautiful," she says.

Shah and Das are illustrious examples of what it is like to experience mid-career success in the Indian entertainment industry. Far from being burnt out, they think it is a gift to be occupied with work. "I feel like I've been building an engine all these years. Now, the garage is open and it's time for a test drive," Das says elatedly. He highlights the democratic nature of stand-up comedy, where the audience is vast enough for all comedians to have their fill; where, on any given day at a comedy club, a young entrant to the scene could earn more laughs than a veteran.

"This is just the beginning for me," Shah says, painting a picture of herself on set - obsessed, adrenaline pumping, and entirely consumed by the moment. "I hope the recognition I get in present times changes people's perspective towards my work. Previously, the love, respect and compliments I earned didn't translate into opportunities. It was depressing, and it finally changed after Delhi Crime. The offers I have received ever since have made me greedier for good work," she says.
Having persevered through their early years means that nominations - or even awards - will not alter the unconventional, experimental nature of their career choices. "Right from the beginning when I didn't have anything - not even the sense of what is right and what is wrong, or what it means to be successful - I made choices which turned me inside out. And I will continue to do that; I don't know any other way," Shah says.

Das says his choices have been solely informed by the intention to become better at what he does. If he is at the crossroads and must pick between a streaming show and doing comedy at a small venue where he will meet his idols, he will pick the latter in a heartbeat. "For me, international recognition is the ability to do a world tour, to add more countries to my tours over the years. It's crazy, right, that in Australia's Adelaide there is one theatre, and there's a poster of you put up there. A few months from now, there will be 2,000 people there to watch you," Das seems to say out loud to the Noida boy inside him.

The comedian sharply notes that awards will not change the expectations of the crowds he performs for, nor will they buy him any liberties with them. If anything, recognition raises the bar an artiste must aim for - a pressure that Shah has grappled with too, especially on the first day of a new set.

"The one thing our two pieces of content have in common is that they feature a realistic side of India with purity of human intention," Das says, highlighting the sense of artistic responsibility that is central to their work. Delhi Crime earned acclaim for its depiction of the 2012 Delhi gang rape and Shah's character, DCP Vartika Chaturvedi, a top officer with integrity and steely determination. Shah says that the true events the show is based on demanded a heightened sense of responsibility from the crew and actors.

"There are people who have suffered that already, you can't make them suffer again because you misinterpreted it," she says. This ethic defined how they responded to the news of their International Emmy win. "We couldn't joyously celebrate it because it was based on a case that had shaken the country. It depicted the courage of a woman solving a crime committed against another woman. We had to be aware of that," she says.

Das, on the other hand, has long been a wry observer of Indian society and politics. The special that he has been nominated for this year speaks of the perils of outrage - specifically the outrage that came after his Two India's monologue, where he set the country's social issues against its values and spirit. "I come from an India where we have the largest working population under 30 on the planet, but still listen to 75-year-old leaders with 150-year-old ideas," he declares in the monologue. The comedian says he has trained his gaze on the country since the start, because of his love for it.