Flop actors turn directors to stay afloat

After failing to make an impact as actors, some T-town heroes are turning into directors to keep themselves in the reckoning. For instance, Rahul Ravindran whose films like ‘Galipatam,’ ‘Ala Eela’ and ‘Tiger’ tanked at the box office, thus, forcing him to turn into a director with Telugu film ‘Chi La Sow’ starring Sushanth in the lead.

“It is an act of desperation for some flop actors, provided they are equipped for the new job,” says director Teja, who feels that direction has become a joke these days. “Being the captain of the ship is not an easy task. May be after failing as heroes, these actors will get character or nondescript roles and slowly get pushed out. So, direction is one good option for them to stay afloat,” he adds.

Actually, even yesteryear superstars like NTR and Krishna directed films only after gaining experience in all the major crafts. “Even seasoned actors like Chiranjeevi who did more than 150-films hasn’t dared to wear the director’s hat and now Balakrishna is thinking of directing NTR biopic after acting in 100-odd films.

Hence, the transition of hero-to-director demands a lot of experience and knowledge of all 24-crafts. If anybody is under the impression that direction is all about convincing a hero with a script, he is just fooling himself and others as well,” says director P Vasu.

However, actor Venkat Atluri, who made his debut as an actor in ‘Snehageetham’ later became a writer and eventually a director. “Venkat was always a creative person and always brimming with story ideas and visuals. For him, acting was just a hobby, but writing and direction are his real skills.

He moved to the next level with blockbuster ‘Tholi Prema’ and he will be a promising director,” says director Madhura Sreedhar.
Unmindful of limited success for actor-turned-directors in T-town, another actor Sairam Shankar is planning to wield the megaphone and follow the footsteps of his brother and director Puri Jagannath.

“It is true that Sairam Shankar is planning to turn director and is now readying a script for the same,” says an industry source. Despite acting in more than 12-odd films, Sairam was unable to make his mark as a actor. With numerous flops like ‘Yamaho Yama,’ ‘Dillunodu’, ‘Nenorakam’ and `1000 Abbadalu’ his career as an actor hit a roadblock. “It is better he is turning into a director because he has been observing his brother for many years and used sit on the sets.