Deepti Naval, an actor-director-writer, celebrates her 45th year in the industry this year. Naval is seeking more definite roles at this point in her career. She said, “I’m hoping to get better roles, otherwise, I’m very happy writing. There is no dearth of offers. The typical mother roles are dime a dozen”.
She is confident that she simply does not want to portray another mother onscreen. She was very open about it for her subsequent film, Mother Teresa and Myself. Naval says, I asked the director what do you want me to play? It’s either the young girl or Mother Teresa. At that point, I didn’t want to do any typical mother role. My role in Zindagi na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD) was most miniscule and I thought, ‘Oh my God, is this what it’s going to be now? People are going to call me for one or two scenes’. It was like a little bit of an alarm. Of course, it’s a beautiful film to be a part of it. But here I thought, yes, I could bring something. I didn’t have any great expectations from my role (in Mother Teresa and Me) I wanted to be part of a good film just like I wanted to be part of Zoya (Akhtar, director)’s film”.
Did she find the entire ZNMD movie annoying? Naval rejects the assumption. “Out of three scenes, two were kept and only one was pulled out. That’s the freedom the director takes. I was happy (with it) but I certainly didn’t want to be the mother and be there for just a split second. No,” she explains.
The author feels "very comfortable" with her age, notwithstanding the foregoing. “I don’t want to try and look younger. I don’t want to be desperate about how I’m looking on the screen. I look like my age and I’m okay with it”.
Kamal Musale, an Indian-Swiss filmmaker who Naval describes as extremely "sensitive," wrote and directed Mother Teresa and Me. She concludes, “He is somebody very sensitive, the smaller little things matter to him. I found him working very comfortably with most, with all his artists”.
