Deepa Sahi is an Indian actress, producer, screenplay writer, and director who lives in Mumbai, Maharashtra.She is known for her role as Maya in the Bollywood film Maya Memsaab for which she won a National Film Award.She was born in an Army family and was the youngest in her family.Her elder sister died at the age of 18, and in an interview, while talking about her family, Deepa said, After my sisters death, my vision and concept of living life got changed. I started having an excessive desire of living my life without any compromises..Later, her family shifted to Canada, but Deepa decided to stay in India and achieve her goals.She further joined the National School of Drama to amplify in film direction but owing to the fact that she had extremely good looks and voice, she was constantly preferred for films as an actress.Amidst her acting career, she co-produced her film Maya Memsaab in 1992.She acted in 18 films but later quit acting to direct films, and while talking about her acting career, in an interview, she said, People dont believe but I was always interested in direction. Acting happened to me by chance. During my student days at NSD, I got an opportunity to direct an adaptation of Girish Karnads Hayavadan. But the leading lady dropped out 48 hours before the show. Everybody felt since I know the character inside out I would be the best person to fill in. The performance was appreciated. After that, a friend, who was studying at FTII asked me to act in the diploma film that she was expected to make as part of her course. The film was screened at some film festivals and a hoity film critic of The Village Voice described my performance as sublime. Soon I became the talk of the town. The director called me that Govind Nihalani is looking for me. I insisted that I came here for direction but I was told that anybody can give an arm to work with Nihalaniji. So that is it. I was fully committed to whatever films I did but I never saw it as a career. As an actor, you have to shoot for 15-20 minutes a day. At times it is even less. The rest of the day goes into make-up and other things, where you dont have much of a say. I didnt have that kind of patience..In an interview, she said, she had always been fascinated with computers and their working, and how it has reduced man labour.In 2001, Deepa and her husband, Ketan Mehta, founded Indias leading training institute MAAC in high-end 3d animation and visual effects.