"Seven years ago, when I was looking for interesting work, I was pushed into inane bhabhi roles," she narrates. "I was told these roles provide security for ageing actresses. Then I realised that if security means putting on make-up and waiting for hours for your co-star to turn up. I didn’t want it."

She says that going into hiding was a conscious decision. "I became inaccessible," she continues. "But offers kept coming via e-mail. In fact, the offer to play the part of Chaitali in Leela came on e-mail. The Shakti followed, and so did Freaky Chakra..."

Freaky Chakra is one film Deepti can’t stop talking about. "It’s been great playing a cantankerous and irritable middle-aged woman," she gushes. "It was a difficult character to enact because anger forms her dominant emotion. The only time I had to step out of my character was in the scene when I had to listen to anonymous sex calls."

So is Deepti Naval an angry person in real life?

"No, I don’t feel strong anger against anything or anyone any more," she replies. "Twenty years ago, I did, but not now. So it was a challenge for me to portray loud fury. I would consider Freaky Chakra a bold experiment in cinematic form and characterisation."

The actress points out that mainstream Hindi cinema could never throw up such challenges. "Commercial films did not give me an iota of satisfaction," she confesses. The meatier roles have always come from parallel cinema. However, today things are looking up with many off-beat movies happening."

But it is in the so-called ‘crossover films’ that Deepti actually pins her hope: "Although the genre is going through some teething problems now, it excites me. Subjects that have been pushed under the carpet are being tackled now. Being low-budget, these films allow for experimentation in form as well. And that’s saying a lot about Indian cinema today."

Much as she is content with being on the periphery of showbiz, her "hunger for better roles remains unabated. "I will be more demanding as an actress, she promises. "I had thought about direction some time back, but gave up the idea recently. I’m in tune with myself as an actress all over again."