Deepali Singh (DNA; March 24, 2018)

When we spoke to Deepti Naval a few days ago, the actress was gearing up for the 75th show of her play, Ek Mulaqat, based on the love story of Sahir Ludhianvi and Amrita Pritam. But that’s not all that the veteran artiste is busy with. In fact, Deepti, who already has a couple of books under her name, is in the middle of writing her next. “Earlier, I had published books of my poetry and short stories. Whenever a show comes, I take a break, but then I get back to my writing,” she says, refusing to divulge any further details about her new work.

The actress believes that today, content is king, and it’s a good time for stars as well as actors to showcase their prowess. “With the kind of subjects being explored these days, both are getting to do what they want. It’s not art house cinema anymore. It’s interesting cinema which is presented commercially and that’s what I like about it,” she adds. Talking about the recent films, she admits that she liked Toilet - Ek Prem Katha. “That was the last movie I saw in the theatre and I loved it! Now, I want to watch Pad Man. I think Akshay (Kumar) is doing great work — something which is so necessary — in his own commercial way. Hats off to him for picking these subjects! I love the fact that he’s choosing to tell such stories, pointing a finger at them and saying, ‘Look, here is a problem, let’s tackle it’. I like that kind of spirit,” she says.

The veteran actress has kept her passion for movies alive with her performances in movies such as NH10, Listen... Amaya, and Tevar among others. “I have been reading a lot of scripts and I’m waiting for The Boy With The Topknot to release in India,” she says of the movie based on the memoirs of British journalist Sathnam Sanghera. “It’s the first time I got to speak in my mother tongue, Punjabi, in a film. I enjoyed that immensely,” she says. Deepti admits that at her age, interesting roles are hard to come by. “After doing movies like Memories in March, Listen... Amaya, and The Boy With The Topknot, I’m hopeful that interesting characters will come my way, where I get to play my age, but don’t have to do anything stereotypical,” she concludes.