She is Deepti Naval, the actor, to the world. But she is also a painter, filmmaker and writer. However, when it came to compiling her recently-released memoir, A Country Called Childhood, she chose to write about Dolly (her nickname as a child).

“I’ve lived life on my own terms. Most of the time, I’ve behaved non-practical, impromptu and spontaneously. When people label me the sweet, girl-next-door, I don’t [relate to it since] I’ve no such self-image. My self-image is completely contrary,” asserts the 70-year-old, known for critically acclaimed films such as Chashme Buddoor (1981), Leela (2002), Listen…Amaya (2013), among others. But, if there’s one thing she’d wish to go back in time and fix, it’s “running away from home”. “I would never do such a stupid thing!” she says.

Her writing has been appreciated in the past as well, wherein she experimented with poetry and short stories. Before publishing, she recalls making late Farooq Sheikh — with whom she has worked in numerous films — her sounding board: “I’d run the final version of the short story by Farooq. He was happy to see my growth as a writer, and had said, 'Pehle bhi padhi thi tumhari nazmein, but this is far ahead'.”

Ask Naval, who was last seen in 2021’s OTT series Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors, if she would like to see any of her work of writing on screen, may be in the form of a web series, and she says, “I haven’t thought of it yet, but now that you bring it up, yes, why not? I know that my book is very visual.”