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HE struggles, gets the big break and attains star status. He’s suddenly inundated with film offers; producers are willing to wager huge amounts on his talent and star appeal. Money is pouring in, fans are swooning over him and lady luck is truly smiling upon him. Just then, he realises that he can use his new-found brand equity to make a film of his liking. Like Dilip Kumar did 51 years ago when he produced Ganga Jumna, introducing Bhojpuri dialect through his dhoti-clad avtar, Dharmendra did by backing Satyakam, a hard-hitting social film with a morale, like Sunny Deol did with Ghayal written with Kamalahasan in mind, like Shah Rukh Khan did with Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani and Aamir with Lagaan, a film set in the pre-Independence era with a rural backdrop, reasoning that "no one would invest in a film like this, so I did." When a commercial star of Anil Kapoor’s standing makes unconventional films like My Wife’s Murder and Gandhi, My Father — it’s nothing but matter of heart for the star. Another major reason behind stars venturing into production is the "total creative control." As Aamir admitted in an interview, "The reason why I produce films is I have full control. I can make it better. Creative liberty is in my hand." Film trade expert, Vinod Mirani elaborates, "Stars just love to exert their power on the director, Ajay Devgn is known to do it. And everybody knows how Salman Khan turned Dabangg’s verbose dialogue into spunky one-liners by complete rewrite." Business sense After hitting big times, the star becomes aware of his exalted brand equity and decides to cash in on it. Raj Kapoor realised his worth very early and just after a couple of films — Neel Kamal and Andaz for outside banners — at the tender age of 24, he launched his home banner RK Films with Aag. He was the first star to encash his star status. Dev Anand wanted to explore business opportunities in filmmaking with his type of films, thus he floated his Navketan banner. Jeetendra made films like Humjoli that suited his jumping-jack image. Amitabh Bachchan’s attempt at movie corporatisation with AB Corps’ Tere Mere Sapne, Mrityudata, Major Saab, Aks and Viruddh may not have yielded the desired success but it was an attempt to consolidate his brand image. Abhishek Bachchan revived the banner with an aesthetic Paa that complemented his suave image. Akshay Kumar partnered Ramsey brothers in making the Khiladi series before floating his home banner Hari Om with Khatta Meetha. Suneil Shetty produced Khel as it made business sense. Sanjay Dutt also got into filmmaking as his buddies advised him that he could raise the funds for production. Ajay Devgn ventured into filmmaking with Raju Chacha, Pyar To Hona Hi Tha and Toonpur Ka Superhero, co-starring wife Kajol to liquidate their star-couple appeal. They are all out to get the lion’s share. Desperate dash Even after being launched in the stellar orbit, the star remains wrapped up in his roles and lines. He gets a rude shock when his films start flopping and his stardom begins to slip out of his grasp. In a last-ditch effort to salvage his standing, superstar Rajesh Khanna produced Alag Alag in the 1980s when his stardom was on wane, in his desperation he also tried to pair up with his estranged wife Dimple Kapadia in Jai Shiv Shankar, a film that remained unmade. Arjun Rampal resorted to producing I See You, a supernatural thriller under home banner Chasing Ganesha, to give a boost to his sagging career in 2006, Zayed Khan and Dia Mirza joined hands to produce the romantic comedy Love, Breakups, Zindagi under their banner Bornfree to prop up their careers. Hema Malini made Tell Me Oh KKhuda solely to re-launch daughter Esha, without much success. Ameesha Patel’s production ambitions, too, have more to do with resume enhancement than any creative considerations. These frantic filmmaking stars have rarely managed to rescue their stardom. Family matters Then, there is a huge majority of stars who inherits banners — like Hrithik Roshan and Filmkraft — for him filmmaking is family business. As it is for Sunny and Bobby Deol and also for Ranbir Kapoor, who vouches to re-launch the RK banner very soon. Although a star son, Saif Ali Khan cited his reason for heading Illuminati Films as, "I decided to turn producer because I wanted to own the work that is done. I wanted to be more creatively involved in a project apart from just acting in it and take the responsibility. Basically, after working in the industry for so many years, I wanted growth." With Love Aaj Kal and Agent Vinod, Saif has displayed his versatility as a producer. Adventurous streak Those who yearned to make path-breaking films despite not being very big stars, produced films on the sheer strength of their adventurous spirit. As Guru Dutt did with Pyasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool, Manoj Kumar did for making his brand of patriotic films, Feroz Khan with his cowboy projects Sharmatma, Qurbani, Yalgaar etc. They did make a go of it too. In recent times, mid-level stars like Abhay Deol, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani have got into film production. Most recent rookie of the star production brigade is newbie Rana Duggabatti. But all eyes now on John Abraham with the surprise success of his debut production Vicky Donor. "Most actors turn producers to make films for themselves. As a producer, I am going to ensure that the films that come out of my stable star other actors too like Vicky Donor. Content is king and my focus will be on making films that have strong scripts," he declared. His gold strike is bound to inspire many followers from the filmdom, but Nayar adds a word of caution for such herd mentality, "Post-production, release, promotion, distribution and monitoring the boxoffice performance, it’s a lot of hard work, and then, there is the huge pecuniary risk involved." However, the ready availability of corporate financing these days does make production a much safer bet for the stars today.
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