And, Finally Kangana Ranaut Decides To Make Her Debut As A Director, Officially...

Ali Peter John

There has always been some kind of an urge in a successful actor to direct a film some day. Some have succeeded in fulfilling this unusual ambition, others have tried and failed, but the urge has always been there. There have been actors who have always believed that they could have directed the films they had worked in better than the directors who directed the films.

Among the first big actors who later made it as cult directors were Dr V Shantaram, Mehboob Khan (he started his career as a junior artist), Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Amjad Khan and even Subhash Ghai, Shekhar Kapoor and not to forget Dev Anand.

There were some actors who clearly showed signs of taking over as the directors of the films they worked in and tried to show their directors how to go about shooting certain scenes and songs and even changing the dialogue of films even while the shooting was on. All the directors could do was cry foul and accuse the actors of interference and they could do nothing else to the mighty actors and stars, even though there were several instances of the mighty names forcing some of the best known directors to sit outside the sets on which their films were being shot and some of the directors were even sent home when a particular song, scene or dance in which the actor had his personal interest was being picturised. Some of these directors who were humiliated like this never directed a film again and some even died premature deaths.

Dilip Kumar, as is well known now directed almost all his films and was known as the de facto director of the films he worked in and there were stories about how he made renowned directors like Nitin Bose, Tapan Sinha and even BR Chopra look on, as he took over their jobs as the director of their films. He was gradually reaching a stage when anyone who knew even a little about filmmaking knew that he was itching to direct a film himself. He found this opportunity when he had a producer in the late Sudhakar Bokade. He had a subject which as was later known was very dear to his friend BR Chopra. He announced his decision to officially direct his first film, “Kalinga” with him heading the cast as Justice Kalinga, retired judge who takes revenge on his own children who treat him badly after his retirement. He took his own time to complete the film which has still to be released and now with the passing away of the producer and Dilip Kumar being bedridden, it is doubtful whether the film will ever be released.

It is almost the same story with other actors like Raj Kapoor, who started off as an actor and then took to producing and directing his own films and never look back, Dev Anand who took quite a long time to direct his first film,“Prem Pujari”, which was a disaster, but did not stop him from making films till the end of his life, Manoj Kumar acted in his on brand of films and once he had ghost-directed “Shaheed”, he knew he could direct and he directed some of the best patriotic films made ever, Subhash Ghai was a failed actor, but discovered the director in him and has still not given up.

And now, we have Kangana Ranaut who is following in the footsteps of the male legends. All those who have been watching Kangana since she won the hearts of people with films like “Queen”, the “Tanu weds Manu” sequel, “Katti Batti”,“Simran” and even “Manikarnika” and the recently released “Panga” know what kind of an impact she has made during the making of these films, even though she had to earn the wrath of her director and co-actor. And news coming in from the south about “Thalaivi”, the biopic she is doing on the life of the fiery Tamilnadu leader J.Jayalalitha, say that it is another all-Kangana Ranaut show.

And before her admirers and detractors whose numbers keep growing have anymore charges to level against her, Kangana’s only official mouthpiece, her sister Rangoli Chandel has revealed Kangana’s decision to make her official debut as a director. And what is more interesting is that the title of Kangana’s debut-making directorial film is “Ayodhya—-Jai Shri Ram”. All other details will be announced only after the release of “Thalaivi”, which will be sometime after June.

Will it be a controversial film? With a title like this, with Kangana behind the helm of a well and the film being announced at a time when there is so much controversy and hot air (garam hawa) blowing all over the country, what do you expect? Your answer is as good as mine.