By Manissha Despaande, Bollywood Trade News Network

Jackie Shroff is on a new high in his career, what with the great line-up of releases that he has in the coming few months, all of them with powerful roles. There's Sachin Bajaj's NAKSHA scheduled for release in early September in which he plays a hard core villain, followed by Sangeeth Sivan's APNA SAPNA MONEY MONEY, in which he plays a comic villain, followed by Poonam Sinha's MERA DIL LEKE DEKHO, Vinod Chopra's EKLAVYA and more. The list goes on but Jackie is now gearing up for the big spiritual break in his career when he plays the title role in Deepak Balraj's SAIBABA. "It is a very different role for me after the grey characters I am essaying lately in films and I am looking forward to doing it. It will have to be a very controlled performance," he says.

So is he a devout worshipper of Saibaba? "I have been to Shirdi on some occasions in the past but I firmly believe that God resides in each of us. Our soul is a temple and it is important to be honest to yourself if you have to reach out to God but yes, I do intend to meet the devotes of Sai in order to feel and render conviction to the character," he says.

Meanwhile there are three other films in the offing and Jackie points out that all three will have him playing diverse roles. "Honestly, I am enjoying this phase of my career, when I can experiment with roles without worrying about appeasing the audiences. Fortunately for me, all my roles are getting me a very good feedback too," he smiles.