Models turn actors, actors turn directors, but that is usually the case with failed actors. An outstanding example is Rakesh Roshan who did many films, but was dubbed a failure as actor. His reaching star-director status with the aid of his son Hrithik is too recent a fairytale to recount.

Someone who had a worse fate than that is Subhash Ghai who passed out from FTII and had just one miserable film to show as an actor, 'Nayee Umar Ki Nayee Fasal'. Far from his current climb up the Whistling Woods film academy on an international scale!

But now directors, and successful ones at that, just can't wait to gain total creative control and turn producers. Nikhil Advani has moved fast even by Bollywood's mad and chaotic standards.

After just one hit, 'Kal Ho Naa Ho', for producer Karan Johar (another young director turned producer anyway), Nikhil Advani broke away from Karan and co-produced 'Salaam-e-Ishq' with Sunil Manchanda a few months ago and is in no hurry to look at fresh scripts as a director.

Instead, Advani has just teamed up with Mukesh Talreja for a joint production to be directed by debut filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane. "For now, I'll only produce films. I want to direct just once in three years," Advani has said.

He is thick in preparation for the movie as a producer, which stars John Abraham and Vidya Balan, who were also cast together in Salaam-e-Ishq and if rumours are to be believed, sent sparks flying off-screen too.

Directors taking over the producer's baton are not really a new trend in Bollywood — apart from Rakesh Roshan and Subhash Ghai, there have been Mahesh Bhatt and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, just another couple of examples. Not top speak of Ram Gopal Varma and his Factory, of course. What comes as a bit of an eyebrow raiser though, is the speed of the switch.

Anurag Basu, director of two runaway hits, 'Murder' and 'Gangster', already runs Ishana Movies that has already produced television shows and will soon double as line producer of 'Life in a...Metro'. "As line producers, we will obtain a first-hand experience of various aspects of the business. In the long run, we want to operate a fullfledged production house," Basu has said elsewhere.

Madhur Bhandarkar too became a line producer of his last venture, 'Traffic Signal', produced by Percept Picture Company. Reaping the profit of one's films is certainly an objective, but these filmmakers also feel that they are in for a lot of creative freedom when they get to produce their own movies, or hire young talent to direct their production projects. Bhandarkar, who plans to coproduce films with UTV and Percept in the near future, says, "If I turn producer, it will be easier for me to make films I believe in."

Vishal Bharadwaj, who produced his debut film 'Makdee' (which may have been the only resort at that time), is again dabbling in production after the Bollywoodisation of the Bard. He has coproduced his new film 'The Blue Umbrella' and is also coproducing Anurag Kashyap's 'No Smoking', fresh from the accolades Bharadwaj has earned for 'Omkara' and Kashyap for 'Black Friday'.

Producers, apart from people like Raj Kapoor of the earlier days, are usually just just moneybags, but nowdays they are also those who know something of the art of filmmaking. Kumar Mangat, an independent producer, hass this belief: "These days a film is produced every three months. So ensuring the quality of films has become far more challenging. It has become essential to include writers and directors in the production team."

With this refreshing change of image of the typical producer, here's hoping that the look of Bollywood will chanmge and look more 'integral" and synergised. - (SAMPURN)