Kaanta Laga fame, Shefali Jariwala’s untimely demise has sent shockwaves throughout the entertainment industry. For the unversed, Shefali took her last breath on June 27, 2025. She was just 42 when she left for the heavenly abode. However, in a recent interview, one of the makers of Kaanta Laga, Vinay Sapru, recalled his first meeting with the talented actress. He shared that the news of her death is totally shocking and unbelievable to him. Vinay also recalled the days when he watched Shefali’s hard work that transformed her from an ordinary college student to an iconic star.
Vinay Sapru shares that Shefali Jariwala was just 19 years old when he met her for the first time
For the uninitiated, filmmaker, Vinay Sapru and Radhika Rao were the masterminds behind the iconic song video, Kaanta Laga. Recently, Vinay sat for an interview with ETimes and recalled the days when he and Radhika found their ‘Kaanta Laga Girl’, Shefali. Vinay shared that they spotted Shefali sitting behind her mom on a scooter, and she was just a 19-year-old college student. Recalling the days, Vinay shared that Shefali was not experienced, but her innocent, doll-like look made them call her for an audition. In his words:
“We discovered her when she was just 19. We were planning to do this album called DJ Doll and had this song Kaanta Laga. We were looking out for a girl who looks like a doll whose emotional nature, behavior, body line, everything has to be doll-like. We were driving on Linking Road and a scooter came parallel to us with a mother driving and a young girl hugging her. Radhika and I just looked at her and said, ‘I think we’ve just found our girl.’ We stopped them at a signal and asked if she’d be interested. She said she was an engineering student at Bhawan’s College in Andheri and had no experience. we just gave her a number and a card and we left and we said, if you’re interested, you can come over for the auditions to our office tomorrow.”