It seems every other director in Bollywood wants to make a film on someone famous and legendary. There’re at least two directors girding their loins to film the legendary Meena Kumari’s life. An assistant of Sanjay Leela Bhansali has meanwhile finalised a story based on the life of Guru Dutt which he wants to make with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead. And Rituparno Ghosh is all set to film the life of the world renowned filmmaker with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead.

Wait. There’s a lot more. Even as Mahesh Bhatt prepares to film a screenplay based on Parveen Babi’s life (and never mind if he has done so already in the controversial Arth), Bhatt’s long-term admirer, TV director and feature film sophomore Vinta Nanda is all set to start a film based on Mahesh Bhatt’s life!

“It isn’t an easy task,” says Vinta, who pioneered the culture of long-running soaps on Indian television with her marathon Tara, and recently, in her feature film, White Noise, spoofed the very soap culture that she initially propagated. Reveals Nanda, “My film on Mahesh will go through all his turbulent chapters. I need an actor and not just a star. I don’t know where I’ll get someone who can play Mahesh from his youth to middle age. But I’m determined to film the story. It’s a story that needs to be told,” says Vinta who’s also planning a love story called History. “But that, only after my Mahesh Bhatt film,” she warns.

Vinta isn’t the only director planning a biographical film. Vikram Bhatt also intends to go into a stormy phase of his own personal life (Sushmita Sen, by all accounts) in his new film. And the talented TV director Ravi Rai (coincidentally another Mahesh Bhatt disciple)’s current love triangle, Kasshish, featuring Ayub Khan, Simone Singh and Kitu Gidwani is also based on events from Rai’s own life.

Could this self-cannibalisation process have the Bhatt factor in common? Laughs Vinta, “I don’t know about the others who are making biographical or autobiographical films. But my film on Mahesh Bhatt will keep me out of the picture.”