Deepa Sahi

Deepa Sahi, an ethnic Punjabi, was born in Dehradun in an Army background and is the youngest sibling in her family. She grew up in Meerut. Her family later shifted to Canada, but she continued to stay in India. She had an elder sister who died at the age of 18. Sahi pursued her education at Indraprastha College for Women, and was a gold medalist in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics. Sahi later joined the NSD with the aim of becoming a director. However, she started receiving acting offers from her NSD days, which prompted her to shift to acting. Sahi decided to direct her first film in the early days of her career but the film, Nana Karte Pyaar which was supposed to star Nana Patekar and Hema Malini failed to take off due to a recession. She is married to film director Ketan Mehta, who is the nephew of freedom fighter Usha Mehta. It is the second marriage for both of them. Her cousins Meena and Tana are theatre actresses active in Delhi's theatre circuit. An alumnus of NSD, Delhi, Sahi started off with a theater career, with strong social activism a core value of the productions she was involved with. In her early film career she collaborated with noted auteur Govind Nihalani and made her debut with the 1984 film Party. This was well received, and she subsequently acted in Aghaat (1985). Her thespian achievement, however, will always remain her role as the independent-minded and empowered lower-caste Punjabi woman she played in the highly acclaimed television film Tamas (1986).