Deepti wants Madhuri for her directorial debut

Avant-garde actress Deepti Naval has decided to take the plunge into directing movies and she wants none other than Madhuri Dixit for her first film. "Yes I'll be directing a film soon. I've finished scripting it. It's based on a short story by Hindi litterateur Prem Prakash. I've completely re-worked the story and taken it into a different tangent," Deepti told IANS.

And she is keen that Madhuri works in her directorial debut. "She would fit the complex part beautifully," said Deepti.

The actress was overjoyed when she attended a retrospective of her best films at the Indian Film Festival in Los Angeles last month.

"They screened some of my favourite works like 'Main Zinda Hoon', 'Kamla' and 'Panchavati'. The festival reminded me of how vital my acting career is to me. Turning to direction is an inevitable branching-out," she said.

"I don't want to cast myself in my first directorial venture. But I don't mind directing myself in the future," she added.

Some decades ago Deepti had directed a well-received serial on women called "Thodasa Aasman" on national television.

"Like that serial my film too is women-centric. It's about a woman and her various relationships."

Deepti has set her first film in the Kangra Valley. "Because it requires that far-from-the-madding-crowd ambience," she explained.

The actress was supposed to direct a film on the life of the controversial painter Amrita Shergil a few years ago.

"But then I heard Shyam Benegal and a couple of other directors were doing her biopic. So I withdrew. But let me tell you, my film is not about a conventional protagonist."

Indo-Asian News Service