Manisha to go behind the camera

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

Manisha is examining at least two film projects which she is keen on directing. She is currently shooting for Anwar, a film directed by Manish Jha.

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

However, Nepal-born Manisha, 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.

Manisha, who has acted in box-office hit films like 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, Manisha 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, Manisha has been studying filmmaking in New York. "I learnt the basics about the creative side of film direction," she said.

Living in New York was a humbling experience, she said, "In India we get spoilt because we are celebrities, but in New York I had to do all the chores myself like cooking and washing."