After Priyanka Chopra and Anushka Sharma, Deepika Padukone is donning the producer’s hat for her own upcoming film Chhapaak as well as Ranveer Singh’s 83. Padukone will also be playing Singh’s reel-life wife in the Kapil Dev biopic, if reports are to be believed.
According to a report, “Deepika has been locked for Kabir Khan’s next film 83… The film has an ensemble cast being lead by Ranveer and now, DP too has given her go ahead to the film. Deepika has a good role because she plays Kapil’s wife Romi Bhatia who was also a pageant winner. In fact, as far as the story goes, she had left the stadium after India started losing the wickets. But when she heard that they are on the verge of winning the World Cup, she came back to the stadium. That part is extremely dramatic. Also, the film will delve into the relationship between the husband and wife, their love story.”
But Chopra, Padukone, and Sharma aren’t the only Bollywood actresses who turned producers, but they’ve definitely been the more successful ones in the recent past. Another mould these actresses broke was by divesting into production while still at the pinnacle of their careers, while most of their predecessors only tried when they had already started moving away from acting.
Many of them, like Preity Zinta (PZNZ Media) even tried to kickstart their dying careers by producing their own films and shows, but without much success.
Juhi Chawla tried her hand in production in the late 90s, when her mainstream popularity had started waning. She was the co-owner and co-founder, along with Shah Rukh Khan and director Aziz Mirza, of the production company Dreamz Unlimited, which produced Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, Chalte Chalte and Asoka. SRK later took over this company in 2003 and turned it into the successful Red Chillies Entertainment which is co-owned by his wife Gauri Khan.
Pooja Bhatt turned producer way back in 1997 with the critically acclaimed film Tamanna. She eventually went onto produce several films including Dushman, Jism, and Paap.
Twinkle Khanna launched the Mrs. Funnybones Movies last year and her maiden venture was the Akshay Kumar-starrer Padman. But she had co-founded the Grazing Goat Pictures in 2011 along with Kumar and Ashvini Yardi. Even Dia Mirza established her own production house, Born Free, which produced the 2014 detective thriller Bobby Jasoos starring Vidya Balan, but hasn’t been active since it did lukewarm business at the box office.
