In Waqt, she plays a much older woman -- at least 20 years older than what she is -- completely and madly in love with her husband who makes him take some harsh and extreme decisions to discipline his spoilt son, acted by Akshay Kumar.
"I am not the villain," she retorts on being asked if she drives a wedge between the father and son, "My husband is an indulgent father while I am the mother who says the son has to wake up and smell the coffee."
In her own home she essays the role of a strict parent to her two little sons Aryaman and Maurya. Shortly after the success of Monsoon Wedding, Shefali remarried and focussed on family life, having her children and being "this fat woman who was pregnant for three years continuously!"
"Even at home I am the stricter parent. The villain. The bad mother. Cinderella's step mother," says Shefali, for whom, Waqt is everybody's story. It's something that happens in every house. "Tomorrow my sons will grow up and I will face it. It is such a simple story that everyone can relate to. I am surprised it hasn't been done before."