India, Nov. 12 -- Nobody saw this coming. After all, who could have guessed that Bhiku Mhatre's wife in Satya would one day become Indian OTTs' most quietly powerful cop? But Shefali Shah has a knack for doing this. She appears out of nowhere, only for us to realise she's been there all along, watching, waiting, and perfecting. Let's trace her evolution through Shefali Shah through her most significant movies and TV shows.

Shefali Shah, in her career, never chased stardom the way her peers did. She chased truth instead. When mainstream Bollywood didn't know what to do with her. She was too intelligent for arm-candy, too subtle for melodrama. She quietly migrated to the long-form storytelling of streaming.

The result was a kind of second...