From Raj Kapoor to Kamal Haasan, Aamir Khan and Konkona Sensharma, actors donning the director’s hat is common in Bollywood. Here are four actors who are following in these footsteps.
Kunal Kemmu
The 40-year-old actor recently debuted as a director with the comedy drama Madgaon Express, for which he picked three brilliant performers instead of star names — Divyenndu, Pratik Gandhi and Avinash Tiwary.
Madgaon Express revolves around three childhood friends who set out on a trip to Goa, which goes completely awry after they unwittingly get between two warring drug cartels, resulting in insanely funny situations.
Produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment, Madgaon Express has been winning the audience’s love and scoring at the box office since its release a month ago, while Kunal Kemmu is being lauded for his directorial skills.
Kunal had started out as a child actor in Zakhm, Hum Hai Rahi Pyar Ke and Raja Hindustani before debuting as the male lead in 2005 in Mohit Suri’s Kalyug. He later became a part of multi-genre films such as Traffic Signal, and gathered a lot of experience as a comedy actor in franchises like Golmaal and Go Goa Gone.
Randeep Hooda
The Highway actor who underwent physical transformation several times in his career for various roles made his directorial debut with Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, which released on the same day as Kunal Kemmu’s Madgaon Express (March 22).
The film tells the life story of freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Randeep played the title role alongside directing the film. The 47-year-old took time off from other acting projects to invest in writing and directing the film which also starred Ankita Lokhande and AmitSial.
Boman Irani
Boman Irani wore the director’s hat for his passion project The Mehta Boys, which will premiere on Prime Video this year as part of the OTT platform’s direct-to-digital films.
The film is about a 48-hour encounter between a father and a son, and features Boman, Avinash Tiwary and Shreya Chaudhry. He has also co-written the screenplay with Oscar-winning Birdman writer Alexander Dinelaris.
Over a span of two decades, Boman has been a part of notable films like Munnabhai MBBS, 3 Idiots, Don and Main Hoon Na.
Sonu Sood
The Dabangg actor soared to popularity during the Covid pandemic for his philanthropic work. The 50-year-old actor became director, producer and writer with Fateh, an action thriller that is gearing up for release. The film also stars Jacqueline Fernandes. Hollywood stunt experts and cinematographers are part of the action film, shot in various locations across the world.
