The Deol determination is blatant on her face. She is as particular as her father and brothers, if not more, about her health, and has one of the most toned bodies in the industry. She made headlines with Dhoom.

Now, after her two debacles at the box office, Just Married and Cash, Esha Deol is back with renewed vigour, in Darling, directed by Ram Gopal Verma and produced by T-series.

Esha plays the role of a ghost in Darling. Unusual decision, and definitely a first in her career. She does not don any pancake, letting her natural beauty speak for itself. And she believes that she will be more popular than Isha Koppikar, although she plays the other woman.

"There is a graph in that character. I believe that people will like her," she says, brimming with optimism.

This is Esha's first movie with Ramu, and the 25th film in her career. She is all praise for the director, who has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently. "Ramu is an experienced and intelligent director, and I would love to do more films with him in the future," she gushes.

What went wrong with Cash? Esha was very excited when she signed the movie, but later felt that she had made a mistake. She elaborates, "I thought it would give my career a boost, but I could not even understand the scenes we were asked to enact. I am now going to be very selective of the films that I sign up for."

She also thinks that the director should have had a clearer vision, and the actors alone cannot be held responsible for a disaster at the box office.

When she is acting out a role, Esha gives it her all. She is a conventional dresser in real life, for example, but she has no problem wearing glamorous costumes, if the role demands.

She says, "It is my duty to portray properly the character I have committed to play. And if the character demands that I have to wear glamorous clothes, like in Dhoom, then I give it my 200 per cent."

Despite a bad start to the year, the ever optimistic Esha is looking forward to her forthcoming releases. "I am playing many interesting characters these days," she says, smiling.

There is Hijack, with Shiney Ahuja; One Two Three, a comedy, with Tusshar Kapoor; and Mahesh Bhatt's Jannat, a love story with some match-fixing thrown in.

"I have always wanted to work with Mahesh Bhatt, and now my wish will be fulfilled with Jannat," she says. She is also a part of Rohit Shetty's Golmaal Returns, the sequel to Golmaal. Looks like we will see quite a bit of her in the near future.