They too have crossed to the other side. Aamir did it. So has Ajay. The actor-turned-director crossover has always thrown up mixed results but in the two most recent outings — led by Aamir Khan and Ajay Devgan — the going has been good for those who crossed tracks.

U, Me aur Hum, Ajay Devgan’s directorial debut released last week, has left him quite pleased. “The film did not have a great opening but it picked up steadily as word got around. Collections are rock steady now. It feels good to be appreciated,” says the national award winning actor who is seemingly as earnest as he is refreshingly modest.

Aamir Khan

Kamal Hassan

Amol Palekar

Dev Anand

Rakesh Roshan

Pooja Bhatt

Ashutosh Gowarikar

Aamir Khan too was appreciated for his directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par (TZP), released last year. Described variously as a perfectionist and nitpicking, the new director has set the benchmark for actors in the directors’ chair.

“Actors turned directors have great intrigue and interest value for film marketers and viewers. There is an instant connect with the public for people are interested in seeing what an actor has done,” says film marketer Vikramjit Roy, former publicity head at SPE Films India Pvt Ltd.

Of course, actors who become film-makers are not a new occurrence. Dadasaheb Phalke award winner V. Shantaram debuted as an actor in the era of silent movies and went on to direct films with social issues. Decades later, another Maharashtrian, seventies’ comic hero in Bollywood, Amol Palekar, turned to direction in 1981 with Akriet. He has since directed several films in Hindi and Marathi, also dealing with social concerns.

Currently wrapping up work on a yet untitled Hindi film, Palekar compares his role on the two sides of the camera. “I make films because I believe in them. I make films because I want to entertain people. When I was acting I enjoyed it those days. Now I love to make films.”

Clearly, at some stage of his career, an actor seeks a bigger and more satisfying role for himself. “It’s for the creative kick as much as for their growth,” says Bharathi Pradhan, managing editor, Movie Mag International.

But the films of actor-directors are not always financially successful, though the saleability factor does increase by 5-10 per cent, says Komal Nahta, editor of Film Information and The Film Street Journal. “Distributors don’t rush to buy a film only because an actor is directing it. They look at factors such as star cast, music, story — as they do for other films,” he says.

Sometimes, of course, the returns are huge. TZP, for instance, was made at a cost of Rs 12 crore, and is set to make at least Rs 35 crore through all its distribution rights, including those for theatres, satellite, overseas and music.

What strength does being an actor bring to a first-time film-maker? The newest director on the block says he could understand the problems of an actor better, being one himself. “I could do many of the most dramatic scenes in one shot, like the climax (of nearly 10 minutes) and most of Kajol’s scenes. There was no need to keep cutting. I had placed multiple cameras. It’s not that I want to show off but being an actor helped,” Devgan explains.

Between Shantaram and Devgan there have been a host of artistes who became film-makers — from the one-film wonders such as Simi Garewal (Rukhsat, 1988) and Rishi Kapoor (Aa Ab Laut Chalen, 1999) to stalwarts Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt and Sunil Dutt, and contemporary film-makers such as Rakesh Roshan, who was a fairly successful actor, and Ashutosh Gowarikar, who was an unsuccessful actor in Naam and Chamatkar. Among the others who went to directing via acting were Shashi Kapoor, Pooja Bhatt, Revathi, Sanjay Khan, Feroz Khan, Sachin and Kamal Hassan. And then there is Subhash Ghai, who still does an Alfred Hitchcock appearance in all his films.

Some of the actors-turned-directors also switch to direction full time. Palekar, for instance, now only dabbles sporadically with acting. “I just acted a bit in Aks. It was more of an indulgence. I don’t think it was a full-fledged role.”

Straddling acting and directing commitments — much like his debut film in which Devgan rode into the frame astride two motorbikes — is possible when the actor-director is well organised. Not everybody has been as successful in juggling time. Sunny Deol, Pradhan points out, almost jeopardised his acting career when he took up directing because he put his producers’ films on the backburner. “We did not hear producers cribbing or cursing because of delays to their films when Ajay was directing his own film,” she says.

While star image helps an actor to promote his film, it’s the marketing that is a problem, says Devgan of his learning curve. “It’s hard work to push it. You have to be right there, keep at it.”

Actors have also been setting up their own production houses. There is a long and illustrious string of names who did so, beginning from the times of Shantaram, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and Sunil Dutt to Feroz and Sanjay Khan, and now Aamir and Ajay.

But when Dev Anand set up Navketan, his production house, in 1949, he brought in friend Guru Dutt as the director for the company’s first unveiling, Baazi. It would be 21 years before Dev Anand would pick up the megaphone — for Prem Pujari.

It took Ajay Devgan far less time to traverse the distance between producer and director. Devgan Entertainment was set up in 2002. Setting up a studio is not just about controlling all the strings to ensure creative independence, it is also about sharing the spoils among fewer claimants.

TZP is the second film from Aamir Khan Productions, the first being Lagaan. For Khan, the director’s and actor’s spheres are clearly outlined. “The biggest myth is that I ghost direct my films and that I am a control freak,” Khan said in an earlier interview to The Telegraph. “As an actor I have expressed myself but I have always gone with what my director wants.”

Khan knows the line between two creative artistes, and Devgan knows the clout that actors continue to wield. Ask him what strengths an actor brings to promoting a movie, and Devgan quips instantly, “Directors don’t get interviewed, actors do!” Just as films directed by reigning stars always make news.