SPECIAL: Actors who were assistant directors

Mumbai, June 17: Many actors who are scorching the screen today were once assistant directors, running across the sets of a film. Here is a look at some of them.

Bollywood has a sudden surge of new talent and we are specially referring to the young actors. While most of them belong to a filmy family, some are also outsiders. But one thing that is common between most of them is that they have assisted famous directors on their films. Here is a look at some of them who were assistant directors before turning actors.

Sonam Kapoor is Anil Kapoor’s daughter but to enter acting she thought it wise to first learn about the art of filmmaking. That is the reason why Sonam chose to asssist Sanjay Leela Bhansali on his film Black. The film was a masterpiece and so Sonam obviously would have learned a lot. She later went on to debut with Bhansali’s Saawariya.

Coming from the illustrious Kapoor khandaan, Ranbir Kapoor was just waiting for the perfect launchpad to enter Bollywood. But even he chose to be on the sets of a film before taking up acting. So he assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali on his film Black and later debuted with Sonam in Saawariya. Ranbir is a successful actor today with hits like Rockstar and Barfi to his credit.

Even though Varun Dhawan is the son of director David Dhawan, he chose to learn about filmmaking from Karan Johar. He assisted Karan on his film My Name Is Khan which was very different from the usual Johar films. Varun then debuted with Johar’s Student of the Year. He was last seen in Main Tera Hero and his next if Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania.

Student of the Year saw another youngster make his debut who did not belong to any filmy family, Sidharth Malhotra. Sidharth wsa a rank outsider but he also got a chance to assist Karan Johar during the shoot of My Name Is Khan. Today Sidharth is being applauded for his performance in Hasee Toh Phasee and his next Ek Villain looks even more promising.

Hrithik Roshan, another star kid, made a spectacular debut in 2000 with Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai. But before that, he also decided to learn about filmmaking from his father Rakesh Roshan. He assisted him on two of his films – Koyla and Karan Arjun.

Ranveer Singh is another name that does not belong to any Bollywood family but he is a successful actor today. Before making his debut with Yash Raj films’ Band Baaja Baaraat, Ranveer was assistant director to Shaad Ali on the film Bunty aur Babli and even assisted him on a few ad films.

Others who were or are assistant directors before turning to acting include – Emraan Hashmi, Harshvardhan Kapoor, Daisy Shah, Sooraj Pancholi, Armaan Jain, Sunny Deol’s son Karan Deol and actor Kunal Kapoor. (Bollywood Country Report)