Shefali Shah Recalls Painful Childhood: 'Nobody Liked Me In School, I Was Bullied'

For someone admired today for her confidence and screen presence, Shefali Shah’s early years were far from easy. The Delhi Crime 3 actor has now spoken candidly about growing up feeling unwanted, judged,

and even physically bullied at school, opening up in an exclusive conversation about how those experiences continue to shape her relationship with self-worth.

Shefali recently appeared on Zoom’s Spotlight Sessions, where she spoke at length about her career, her latest Netflix series, and personal chapters of her life that are rarely discussed. During the interaction, the actor reflected on how harsh comments about her appearance and repeated bullying left a lasting impact on her.

Recalling her school days, Shefali shared how she was made to feel invisible and targeted. “When you are growing up, I am not talking about my parents, but otherwise, you are told that you are not good-looking. I was bullied in school. Nobody liked me. There used to be one girl who used to keep punching me. She used to call me ‘telu’. And I met her some years ago in her restaurant, and I felt sorry for her. And then someone you know would say If you were thinner, you would look really nice. It’s so much of it.”

The actor also spoke about how rare genuine appreciation can be, and why she believes people should express kindness more openly. “If somebody walked up to me and said something sweet about me, I will be so happy. It would make my day so. So, if you see something lovely, say it! Two is that I don’t like the way I look. I don’t think I ever will be thin enough. I just won’t be. Very rarely do I look at myself and I say ‘Oh! I am looking good’. But I just can’t see it. When somebody compliments me that ‘you are looking beautiful’, I cannot take a compliment.”

While discussing her discomfort with praise, Shefali recalled advice she received from her Delhi Crime 3 co-star Huma Qureshi. “I remember one of the interviews where Huma said, ‘Shef, it’s a compliment. Take it. Learn to take compliments’,” she said.

Shefali added that her instinct is often to deflect compliments by crediting her team instead. “Because my immediate thing is that my make-up team is so good. They work so hard and make me look good, which is a fact. I have a fabulous team. They work hard and make me look like that.”

Closing the conversation on a reflective note, the actor acknowledged that self-acceptance remains a work in progress. “But to say that I am comfortable in my skin, some days I am and some days I am not. Most of the time, it’s like I am not enough. One way to look at it is you have low self-esteem, and the other way to look at it is something I am still hungry for something more space, quality and ease,” she said.