Till recently, the Bollywood Industry was a forbidding fortress in terms of producing films; open only to filmi scions or to the hardiest of adventurers who had an abundance of the powers of the 3 P’s: Passion, Persistence and Persuasiveness. But today top Bollywood actors such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt and Sushmita Sen have set up film production houses of their own to prove that they have also developed those 3 P’s in them to produce films. They drove out-of-the-box career options forward giving the intelligence, craft and power in order to give truly good cinema to the audience.

Here, we’ll talk about some of the Bollywood stars who either turned producers or planned to be ones.

Shah Rukh Khan

King Khan turned producer when he set up a production company called Dreamz Unlimited with Juhi Chawla and Aziz Mirza in 1999. The first two of the films – ‘Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’ (2000) and ‘Asoka’ (2001) – were box office failures. However, his third film, as a producer ‘Chalte Chalte’ (2003), was the first box office hit.

In 2004, he set up another production company called Red Chillies Entertainment and produced ‘Main Hoon Na’, which was another hit at the box office. In 2005 he produced a fantasy film ‘Paheli’, which was a box office failure. That same year he also co-produced the supernatural horror film ‘Kaal’with Karan Johar. The film was moderately successful at the box office. The latest film ‘Om Shanti Om’, which he produced, has done very well at the box office.

Aamir Khan

Aamir is a versatile actor who works for passion more than money. In 2001, he produced and starred in ‘Lagaan’ which was an outstanding film and almost made it to the Oscars. After six years, his second produced film ‘Taare Zameen Par’ released, which is also his directorial debut. This special film, based on a dyslexic child, became instant hit and is running successfully all over the country.

Sanjay Dutt

Ever since the release of ‘Shootout at Lokhandwala’, Dutt has been distancing himself from White Feather Films, the production house that he ran along with his good friend Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay Dutt is now going to launch his own film production house called Sanjay Dutt Productions Private Limited. Reports also say that Sanju will merge his late father Sunil Dutt’s defunct production house Ajanta Arts into his company. Moreover, his sisters Priya and Namrata will also be involved in the company.

Ajay Devgan

Ajay Devgan is yet another actor of Bollywood, who set up his own production company called Devgan Entertainment And Software Ltd. His first film as a producer was ‘Raju Chacha’. It was released in 2000 and met with failure. His second produced film ‘U, Me, Aur Hum’, also his first directorial venture, is all set to release this year. Ajay and his wife Kajol are playing the lead roles in the film.

Sushmita Sen

Sushmita Sen, apart from playing the lead in her forthcoming film ‘Rani Laxmibai’, is simultaneously donning the role of a producer and director for the first time. The script of the film has already been finalised and according to the people involved in the project, this feisty actress has left no stones unturned to see to it that the film doesn’t fall short of its expectations… the expectations that people have from period dramas.

Aishwarya Rai

Recently, the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai (Bachchan) was in news that she is going to produce a film along with her secretary Hari Singh. However, Singh informed that Band Width Entertainment is producing the film, but when he was asked who's behind this company, he reluctantly answered, "They're new and you'll soon know who is involved.” Maybe right now he is instructed not to publicly reveal the fact that Aishwarya is involved with the production house.