The very talented Deepti Naval is done with docility...and never mind the darned image of the goody goody woman.

In her new film Heartless the audience is shocked to see Deepti playing a chic well-groomed ambitious business woman, more grey than greying, who has a life beyond her son and doesn't mind looking like a bitch if the need arises.

Taking a deep breath the multi-award winning actress says, `When Shekhar Suman came to me with the offer of playing this radically different mother I was petrified. I had never played a character with grey shades before.What would the audience think when they see me playing this ambitious woman who has a life beyond her son?`

Deepti says she had to take up the challenge of breaking her image. `I am fed up of being this suffering stifled scared creature. Andar se ghut-ghut ke jeene-waali aurat mujhe maar rahi tthi(I was being killed playing the long-suffering woman). I had to break free. Heartless gave me a chance to play a mother who loves her son to death but doesn't spend her life making his favourite dishes in the goddamned kitchen.`


Shekhar Suman and his wife Alka had to do a lot of convincing before Deepti agreed to play the ambitious career woman. `Alka who has done my beautiful clothes in Heartless suggested I wear a backless gown. I was aghast.I've always been seen in sarees on screen. I was very reluctant. But Alka convinced me.I am glad I listened to Shekhar and Alka. The film has given me a chance to explore a new aspect of my acting abilities.`

Deepti who is all set to make her directorial debut in the film Do Paise Ki Dhoop Chaar Aane Ki Baarish where Deepti's best-friend Manisha Koirala plays a physically and emotionally disfigured prostitute, feels a karmic connection with her screen-son Adhyayan Suman.


Says Deepti affectionately, `It was uncanny.But I could almost feel Adhyayan suffering for his character.The more of the pain he suffered, the more protective and motherly I felt towards him. There was a sequence where I had to him that I had to die so that he could live.It gave me goose flesh. I've felt very close to death recently.My dear friend Farouque Sheikh passed away so suddenly. Before that my dear friend Manisha falling ill all of a sudden...You never know what the next moment holds.`

Cheering up ,after the somber reflection on mortality Deepti says, `Manisha is looking so stunning again.It's so ironical that in my film Do Paise Ko Dhoop Chaar Aane Ki Baarish she plays a scarred woman when in real she has never looked better.`

In the meanwhile Deepti is back to play the angelic mother one last time.

Reveals the actress, `I play Arjun Kapoor's butter-won't-melt-in-the-mouth mother in Tevar. But that's only because Arjun's father Boney and I go back a long way. I had worked with him in Shakti when Arjun was just a child.I can't say no to them.`