Deepti Naval

Deepti Naval is an avant-garde actor, director, poet, painter and writer. Born on February 3, 1957 in Amritsar, she moved to the United States and studied at the City University of New York. She specialized in FineArts and received her degree from the Hunter College at Manhattan. She made her debut in Bollywood with Ek Baar Phir in 1979. Since then she has worked in more than 70 movies! She is famous for the versatile roles that she has played in parallel cinema. She has earned a lot of accolade for her roles in films such as Chashmebaddoor, Kamla, Mirch Masala, Ankahi, Main Zinda Hoon, Panchvati, Leela and Freaky Chakra. In the recent past, her role in Leela was widely appreciated; in 2002, it was screened at the IAAC Film Festival, Commonwealth Film Festival in Manchester and Reel World Film Festival, Toronto. It won the Special Jury Award at the Reel World Film Festival. In 2007, she was acknowledged as the Tribute Honoree of the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. She had also taken a break from films as a result of her dissatisfaction of the film offers she received.

Deepti Naval wrote Thodasa Aasman and directed it as a television series. It is a women-centric drama. Lamha Lamha is her anthology of poems that was published in 1983. Recently, she published another anthology titled ‘Black Wind and OtherPoems’. She also brought out the book, The Mad Tibetan - stories then and now. She is also an avid trekker and she is known for trekking across the Himachal and Laddakh. The television show The Path Less Traveled has been produced by her. Some of her well-known series and collections of fine art have been the Kumaon Series, Landscapes, Nuns, and Reflections. She has also worked on photography. Some of the best collections are: In Search of Another Sky, Shades of Red, Himalayan Road Builders and Images of a Frozen River.

Deepti Naval is also working on cinematic projects directing Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Baarish starring Manisha Koirala and Sanaj Naval. It has not been publicly released as yet. It is a Bollywood film and it was screened at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival. It is expected to be released on March 8, 2012 in India. It was recognized as the 2009 Best Feature Film at the Indian Film Festival of Houston, 2010 Best Screenplay at the New York Indian Film Festival (MIAAC) and in 2010, Rajit Kapoor won the Best Actor Award at ImagineIndia.