In her next film Gandhi, My Father, she will be seen as Kasturba, the Mahatma's wife, which once again will show her with salt and pepper hair, perhaps walking with a stoop.

But Shefali, most bravely, is very practical about it and very frankly confesses she has no problem doing bhabhi or mother roles.

"I don't have a problem playing any role as long as it excites me and has the mettle," she says, "The length of the role has never been my criterion, the filmmaker and the role is."

"The point of being an actor is you play characters you are not. I could play a mentally challenged person, a homosexual, a dyke, a different caste, religion -- something I am not in real life and that's a challenge. Then why doesn't age feature in this category? Isn't it supposed to? Because I am playing the age I am not -- I am walking, talking, behaving like that -- and that's a challenge for me as an actor."