Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala plans to switch roles and try her hand at film direction, after nearly 15 years in front of a camera.

Koirala was examining at least two film projects which she was keen on directing, the popular actress said in the northern Indian city of Lucknow where she is shooting for ``Anwar,'' a film directed by Manish Jha.

"I am working on a few projects and if everything materializes, I will start shooting by year-end," Koirala said.

However, Nepal-born Koirala, who has acted in nearly 60 Bollywood films since her debut in 1991, said she did not intend to give up acting but would do only a few select films.

"I will be selective and will sign only those films that appeal to me," she said. Koirala, who has acted in box-office hit films "Bombay" and "Dil Se" or "From The Heart," also won praise for her role in "Escape from Taliban," a film on the treatment of women by the hardline Islamic regime that once ruled Afghanistan.

In that film, Koirala played a Hindu woman who marries an Afghan Muslim moneylender despite her family's opposition. She lives in Afghanistan and runs a pharmacy that is destroyed by the Taliban regime.

For the past two years, Koirala took a break to study filmmaking in New York. "I learnt the basics about the creative side of film direction," she said.

Living in New York also taught her other things, she said.

"In India we get spoilt because we are celebrities, but in New York I had to do all the basic things of life myself - like cooking and washing," she said.