Bollywood stars are turning extremely penny wise these days. The truth they have realised of late is that glamour and money are bound to leave them one day, so it's better to cut the needless expenses in order to lead a decent life.

With the Mumbai movie industry tipped to grow at 16 percent a year to 2010, actors have lately begun realising the importance of making smart investments, resulting in a trail of restaurants, fashion stores and even schools that filmstars started taking keen interest in.

Many of them remember that a few former actors have died penniless and lonely after extravagant spending during their successful years. Bhagwan rose to fame and wealth from a childhood in a one-room home in Mumbai but a string of bad investments lead him to dying poor and heart broken.

Hence, Bipasha Basu has realised the need for wise investment, as she mulls over getting into the restaurant business. "Starting a food joint is one of my dreams," says Bipasha.

"I cannot remain an actor all my life. I know that my acting career is going to end some day and therefore I am already trying to get an alternative business model ready. And the interesting part is that stars showed little acumen for business until the early 90s. One of the pioneers was Mithun Chakraborthy, who started his own hotel business in South India.

"I made this move when the going was good for me. I was one of the top actors then and was doing very well in my career," he says. "But at the time I wondered, 'what will happen to me after the lights, camera and action go?'. I needed to do something other than acting."

Many have followed Chakraborthy since, including Suniel Shetty and Bobby Deol, who own restaurants in the city. Dino Morrea too started an Italian joint. Sushmita Sen launched her own company with plans to make movies and enter the hotel and health spa industry.

"After films what? This question crossed my mind many times and I thought why not start doing something now rather than being late," says Sen.