Deepti Naval, who has come a long way from playing the girl next door in films like "Saath Saath" and "Chashme Baddoor", celebrated her birthday Friday as enthused by painting and photography as by films.

The middle-aged actress wanted to spend the day with friends and family in Mumbai.

"I will have a quiet evening with few friends and family, no shor-sharaba. I don't want to go back to all that," Deepti told on phone from Mumbai.

A graduate of Hunter College of The City University of New York, Deepti loves to play with oil colours on canvas and she is preparing for her painting exhibition in Mumbai, Feb 8.

"Painting was my major in graduation. And my mother also paints. I guess I have inherited it from her. This is a mother-daughter exhibition. My mother is painting old houses in Amritsar, which are being demolished now. She is going down the memory lane. She used to live there 30 odd years ago before we migrated to the US. And I'm painting landscapes. It is basically the Kumaon Hills series."

She has been also been writing poems and holding exhibitions of her photographs, which she clicked while wandering in the wilds of the Himalayas.

"After doing 'Yalgaar' and 'Saudagar', I didn't get any satisfaction. I was looking for more challenging roles - when they didn't come my way, I started to travel. I went to the Himalayas searching for myself."

So what did you find? "The search is still on..."

Though she is involved in many creative fields like - painting, writing, photography, her first love remains acting and she loves to face the camera provided the role is challenging.

Right now she is excited about Goutam Ghosh's "Yatra", a multi-layered film about a writer played by Nana Patekar. Deepti plays his wife.

"This is the only film I signed after 'Freaky Chakra'. I am happy that I am doing Ghosh's film, a man I have been waiting to work with."

Talking about her co-actor, she says: "Nana makes you work harder. He is demanding and you can't relax when he is on the sets. He keeps the knob on and you can't relax because he gives you that push."

Rekha also features in the film and plays a character from the writer's earlier novel - a singer-dancer with whom the writer becomes obsessed.

Deepti says the film has provided an opportunity to renew her friendship with Rekha.

"I lost touch with Rekha for a long time. There was a long silence between us after my friend Mukesh Aggarwal whom she was married to died. Since we were looking for an excuse to reconnect, this film provided that. It was a wonderful experience meeting her again and talking to her."

Talking about her future projects, she said: "I have said yes to two films but I haven't signed them yet."

She is also planning to wield the megaphone soon.

"I have it in my mind but I am not sure when it will happen. There are a few subjects written by me and I have decided on one of them. My film is not going to be a regular entertainer. It will be an Internet film or I would say dramatic Internet film. It won't be very long before I start work on my first project."

Her daughter Disha is 18 and has been assisting father Prakash Jha as an assistant director but now she will move out of her father's shadow and look for a job, says Deepti.

"She is only 18. She is now going to find a job as an assistant director. She has been assisting her father but now he wants her to find a place for herself outside his production."

Deepti thinks highly of the present lot of actors but her favourite is Hrithik Roshan.