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When “U, Me Aur Hum” hits cinemas this summer, lead actor Ajay Devgan will mark his debut as director, joining a select list of Bollywood film stars who also wield the directorial baton.

Aamir Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and Rajat Kapoor have successfully made the transition in previous years, with their films earning commercial success, critical acclaim or both.

For Devgan, who made his mark as an action hero in the early 1990s, turning director seemed a natural progression after familiarising himself with the job profile over the years.

“Once you are an actor and you spend years in the industry, you learn a lot by looking at some of the best people (directors) in the business work alongside you,” Devgan told Reuters on the sidelines of a film launch in Mumbai.

“It is only a transition for an actor when he becomes a director. If you enjoy cinema, you want to be part of the industry be it as an actor or director or something else.”

Actors doubling up as directors are not new to Bollywood. The names of Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor, Manoj Kumar and Dev Anand are associated with several Hindi classics in the latter half of the 20th century.

But their number declined steadily by the turn of the millennium and the few actors who continued to dabble in filmmaking found no takers for their efforts.

In 2001, Ashutosh Gowarikar, who had appeared in several films in supporting roles, achieved success as a director in “Lagaan”, a film that made it to the Academy Awards shortlist in the Best Foreign Language Film category.