Actors find new love in production

Is it a star? A producer? An actor? Adirector? No it''s our very own superman Shah Rukh Khan. A super mix of all ofthe above.Thus we see a newly evolved being of immense charisma,charm, patience and fortitude. One of the current crop of star personae, whowant to do everything. And do it to the best of theirability.Another such is another Khan, Aamir.And thesetwo showed how one normally cares that much more if the baby is your own, thanif it were a surrogate. Then, more often than not, it gets tossed out with thebathwater.No wonder more and more of the ''star actor'' brigade arelooking at striding two portfolios - one of ''histrionic'', the other of''production''. Two boats, one person. Great when they sail in tandem, but a realpainful ''split'' in the groin if they sail apart, right?Aamir Khanwas the first to get it down to a science when he decided to float AKP (AamirKhan Productions) with.He was smart enoughto calculate that if ''A'' was the amount he was going to put into a project ofthe scale of that film, he might as well stand to gain ''A x 100'' out of thewhole strenuous exercise.And with him at the helm of productionaffairs, a dedicated and passionate director like Ashutosh and a relatively newand professional cast - to shoot the film on outdoor location -- on the trot,made it an economically viable proposition.Also, with AK''s brilliantmarketing mind, he used a different approach to market this film - a partnershipwith a media house - Indiatimes (of the Times Group) and hey presto, theassociation discovered a new level of promotions for the moviemoguls.Aamir sat on all creatives, all events and all meetingshimself, trying to get the max out of everything. And this is something thatwouldn''t have been possible if he himself wasn''t the producer. He knew that itwas he and he alone who stood to gain from making the best out of any activity,and thus the 100 per cent-plus dedication. Not to say that he doesn''t do it whenhe is not the producer. Mr Perfectionist always argues every point even if hedoes not like the producer. Now how often do you see thathappening?SRK, being a far busier star than Aamir (who does only oneor two movies a year), couldn''t afford to devote such time to his productions,though he still puts 100 per cent into all. But he learnt a little more by trialand error. As he puts it: , being my very first production, I wanted to get all thepublicity that I could. And maybe the film did suffer from overkill. In spite ofbeing a good film with great music, the sky-high expectations of the publicaffected it a lot. But no regrets, it was a learning experience."Headds, "On the other hand, with ,because of my experience with , Iwent too low on the hype. Expecting the film to steam through on its own, butthat didn''t work either. So now, with , I''m letting things take their own regular course. And I amkeeping an eagle-eye on things of course, because the problem sometimes withletting things take their own course is that they can run away from you".Typically typical SRK, but so apt.It was Sunny Deol''s initiative inthe 80s and 90s that saw movies such as and hit the marquee with hugeimpacts. It was a production initiative that followed Betaab and was in turnfollowed by ,... and Indian. Dharmendra''sVijeta Films, more than the rest of the star-turned-producer-brigade, was aregular cinema factory, churning them out on the Deol assemblylines.Today, more and more stars are turning producer. Following thenatural progression of a star that many earlier failed to hook onto, to prolongtheir successes.Sunjay Dutt, with his impatient temperament, washardly the kind to sit and pore over papers, figures (unless it was LizHurley''s) and balance sheets. So he floated White Feather Productions along withfriend Sanjay Gupta to do all that and more. He would act in it, devote all histime promoting it and share the profits, if it made some. Gupta, with a mind forhandling large-scale productions would take care of all else.It wasAmitabh Bachchan (who else) who began the corporatisation of movie making whenhe launched ABCL (now rechristened AB Corp) as a force in movieproduction.It was his trust in the wrong set-up that didn''t allow itto become the success it should have. But it proved to be the example thateveryone learnt from. And now, in its new avatar, it is bound to redefinesuccess in movie production, given that it is none other than the mighty AB whois captain of the ship.Of late, it is the business-minded SuneilShetty who is keen to make movie production another of his success stories.Beginning with he plans to producehis own movies and make mucho moolah out of them.Stars like HrithikRoshan already have well-established production units like that of dad Rakesh.And it has made hits like and is set to repeat that with .Stars like Aishwarya, prefer to have a set up notdirectly in their name. So her brother Aditya, along with friend ShabbirBoxwala, floated Target Films, which made , and are now ready to do many more.Salman hasbrother Sohail too with GS Entertainment, to churn out the movies. Ajay Devganhas his unit. Juhi Chawla-Mehta has part stake in SRK''s ''Dreamz''. Govinda,despite a not too successful experience as producer, is still part of thebrigade. And so the production goes on, with more and more stars ready to jointhe bandwagon.No wonder today''s savvy stars are a far cry from thoseof yesteryears, whose highs in life used to be ordering ''Chinese food'' for thefamily on the sets, knowing the harried producer had no choice but to pay forit. Today, the bill comes to them. Not that they mind though, the big box officejackpot comes to them as well.No wonder all our ''producers'' become''reproducers''. Doing it again and again and again...