From V Shantaram and Raj Kapoor to Sonu Sood and Kangana Ranaut: Stars who turned directors

By Rajiv Vijayakar -

January 28, 2025 - 7:24 PM IST

It is said that stars turn producers for varied reasons, the chief one being a substantial or great role for themselves. But when they become directors, it is usually because they would want to explore creativity and being on the other side of the camera. But this too is not a universal reason, as we shall see.

From V Shantaram and Raj Kapoor to Sonu Sood and Kangana Ranaut: Stars who turned directors

This January, we have seen two examples: Sonu Sood acted in and made his directorial debut with Fateh, while Kangana Ranaut has shown her expertise in Emergency, the first film she has individually directed. The brightest addition to star-directors recently is Boman Irani, who is acting in and directed the globally applauded film, The Mehta Boys, which releases in India on February 7. (In Marathi cinema, in the same phase, we have had Subodh Bhave at the helm in Sangeet Maanapman). Now let us attempt to classify this breed.

Stepping in!
Let us first look at four examples where stars stepped in, unhappy with their original choices—Sunil Dutt took over Reshma Aur Shera from S. Sukhdev, Hema Malini dismissed Mayur Puri from Tell Me O Kkhuda and directed the rest of the film, Aamir Khan helmed Taare Zameen Par after retaining Amole Gupte only as its writer and Kangana reshot a good chunk of Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, dissatisfied with the ‘work’ of original director Krish Jagarlamudi.

The one-off directors
These are the stars / actors who took on the captaincy of just one film in their entire careers. The list is headed by Dilip Kumar (whose Kalinga remains an unreleased mystery about whether it is complete or not!), Aamir Khan (who took over Taare Zameen Par as mentioned) and Simi Garewal (Rukhsat). A part-overlap is seen here with another variety of star-directors: those who never acted themselves in the films they steered.

Only one ‘direction’
Shashi Kapoor (Ajooba), Rishi Kapoor (Aa Ab Laut Chalen), Anupam Kher (Om Jai Jagadish), Naseeruddin Shah (Yun Hota To Kya Hota?...What If?), Rajiv Kapoor (Prem Granth), and Johnny Walker (Pahunchey Huwey Log) never faced the camera in their own films and took charge as helmsmen just once. Vinod Mehra turned director with Guru-Dev, but after his untimely demise, Raj N. Sippy completed the film in which he did not star. Hema Malini (Dil Aashna Hai, Mohini, Tell Me O Kkhuda) never took on the ‘double’ responsibility. Pooja Bhatt has directed five films but never acted in any of them.

Sometimes Yes, Sometimes No!
Child star-turned-hero Sachin directed four films in Hindi (of over 20 movies and TV serials, all in Marathi), of which Prem Deewane (in which he only did a cameo) had a modicum of success, but did not star in Aazmayish. Amol Palekar occasionally acted, and sometimes did not (Thodasa Roomani Jo Jaaye, Paheli), as did the giant veteran V. Shantaram and even Dara Singh (who mostly directed Punjabi films). Akbar Khan, in his directorials (he also helmed TV serials) starred only in Haadsaa.

Rakesh Roshan decided to change tracks in the mid-1980s from acting to direction. After this, he merely did necessary cameos in Khoon Bhari Maang, Koi…Mil Gaya and Krrish.

The ‘Comic’ Touch
Comedians funnily (!) tended to direct more than other kinds of character artistes, making films starring either themselves or others! The list spans Kishore Kumar (the comic star-hero), Bhagwan, I.S. Johar, Mehmood, the abovementioned Johnny Walker, O.P. Ralhan, Jagdeep, Mohan Choti, Deven Verma and Asrani! Among other character artistes who decided on stewarding films, Roopesh Kumar, Ranjeet, Amjad Khan and Jalal Agha also had part-comic images!

Their output was a mixed bag, of cult classics like Albela (Bhagwan), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (Kishore Kumar), Phool Aur Patthar (O.P. Ralhan) and Kunwara Baap (Mehmood) and other hits and flops. And as we can see from the last two examples (there were more), not all their films were funfests!

The creatively inclined
Others who were thus creatively inclined included Joy Mukerji, first to give himself a great (double) role in Humsaya, but with success only in Chhaila Babu featuring Rajesh Khanna, Sunil Dutt (who got acclaim with Yaadein), Sanjay Khan (Abdullah was among his better films, though he directed several successful TV shows later), Shammi Kapoor (trying out a new avenue with Manoranjan and Bundalbaaz) and recently, Sunny Deol (Dillagi, Ghayal Once Again) and Ajay Devgn. Sunny never tasted success here. And Ajay’s films have had a mixed critical reception. Interestingly, in his next, Ajay will direct friend Akshay Kumar alone! Nana Patekar directed Prahaar, but buzz is that he was the 'N' in Vadh (2002), whose direction was billed to be by 'NSR'!

The Proven Masters
And that brings us to the final category—the masters. We have already included V. Shantaram above. Rakesh Roshan (again mentioned earlier) showed his expertise with multiple great movies across four decades (Khudgarz, Karan Arjun, Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai, Koi…Mil Gaya, Krrish et al).

We need not say anything at all about men like Raj Kapoor, Vijay Anand and Guru Dutt who, rightfully, had their greatest claim to excellence as directors rather than actors—Vijay had turned actor since Joru Ka Bhai in 1955. Manoj Kumar later showed his brilliance with classics like Upkar, Purab Aur Pacchim, Shor and Roti Kapada Aur Makaan, while Feroz Khan proved his stylized, quasi-international mode of filmmaking credentials with movies like Apradh, Dharmatma, Qurbani and Janbaaz before going off-track with Dayavan and some others.

The director that wasn’t!
Legendary actress Sadhana falls in a unique category all by herself: she was billed as director with Geetaa Mera Naam, but it was later revealed that the film was actually ghost-directed by her filmmaker-husband, R.K. Nayyar!

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