An old member of the Mumbai underground, Vanya Shah believes herself to be the righteous ruler of Mumbai. A ruthless, callous woman, Shah comes from a long line of "dacoity," bandits, and rose through the ranks of the Mumbai underground by virtue of not just her ancestry but also the skills she'd acquired in her youth as a bandit outside Mumbai. Those skills involved a lot of shooting and elimination of opponents, tools she put to good use acquiring a strong grip on the Mumbai slums alongside The Maelstrom and Dawood Rangan.
After the dissolution of the Crows at the hands of the Mumbai mafia, Shah fled the city with The Maelstrom and Rangan and sailed the South China Sea with them. Her time as a pirate was a harsh one and Shah never fully adapted to the life, which turned out to be traumatic for her. Several close calls and the final battle against the Chinese special forces during the Francis King raid, left her broken. Seeing The Maelstrom leave his people behind while he spiraled into madness was enough to push her over the edge as well.Shah has no memories of how she returned to Mumbai but when she finally came to, she was in the care of her now-trusted advisor Rima. Shah has, since her return, elevated herself to the assumed title of Queen of the Slums. She controls large portions of the city through her extensive network of information and controls the water and electricity supply to the slums. Those who oppose her reign end up dead in the gutters or the slums, often just to prove a point.
― Target Intel
Personality[]
Vanya Shah rules the Mumbai slums with an iron fist. Uncaring of her subjects, she refuses to provide them with essential services if they are unable to pay her. She has developed a God complex and become incredibly narcissistic, proclaiming herself the Queen of the slums.
Vanya believes the other residents of the slums to be beneath her. In her personal diary, Vanya writes that she has had enough of Dawood Rangan's method. She even went far as to call him a fat womanizer. She decided to order a hit on the former friend and ally, hiring The Kashmirian to fulfill the contract. For her part, she believes herself to be protecting the work that The Maelstrom began.
She is also very fond of her personal space, as well as privacy. Sneaking into her private wash in any disguise is considered as trespassing. When 47 enters the steam pond while she is using it will make the player suspicious if going near her proximity.
She'll even tell him if the contract succeeds, believing the Maelstrom will approve of her actions. Little did she know that the Kashmirian decided to warn Dawood of the hit and the Maelstrom was planning to kill her as well. The little goodness that remains is shown through the treatment of her advisor, Rima. She was gruesomely disfigured by a bullet she took for Vanya in their pirating days, and is the one person she trusts and cares for.
Gallery[]
Vanya Closeup
Vanya Full Body
The Queen in her Throne
Agent 47 with Vanya
The Queen with Rima and Priyanka
The Queen Meditating
Queen's Artwork
Vanya reprimanding the Laundry workers
Cerulean cloth presentation
Vanya, along with Wazir and Dawood, from IOI's official World of Assassination guidebook
Trivia[]
Vanya Shah's favorite cloth color for her tailor-made dress is cerulean.
Just like Dawood, she also has a picture of the Maelstrom and him near the tea table.
Her cup of tea in the train yard can be poisoned, however it has to be poisoned after her personal assistant, Rima, drinks it.
