Southern actors bitten by the entrepreneurial bug

In parallel to their acting success, a bevy of southern stars such as Tamannaah Bhatia and Taapsee Pannu have successfully built alternate careers, thanks to their entrepreneurial spirit. From jewellery designing to wedding planning, they've ventured into different businesses.

For Taapsee, who started a wedding company called The Wedding Factory with her younger sister Shagun Pannu and close friend Farah Parvaresh earlier this year, it's a way of keeping herself occupied when she's not busy with her acting assignments.

"I can't sit idle on the days I'm not shooting. It makes me restless," said Tapsee, who has always been interested in planning events and weddings.

"I have been the planner for most of my family events and parties, so that interest helped me to collaborate with my best friend Farah, who was already into this business for quite some time and wanted to start a company on her own," Tapsee told IANS.

"It was easier for me to collaborate with her as I can't be present all the days due to my primary job of being an actor. Also, I wanted to help my sister, Shagun, start her career with this as she just completed her post graduation in events and planning. So, it all fell in place and we kick-started this new venture," she added.

Taapsee also embarked on this journey as she felt she's left with limited time to do anything else in life.

"I have always been a multi-tasker but with 16 movies in four years, I was barely left with any time to do much of something else. Quality has taken over quantity as I feel it's the impact of one good movie that matters more than forcing yourself on screen throughout the year," she said.

Despite her packed schedule with film shoots and ad endorsements, Taapsee says she will squeeze time to handle the marketing and business development of the company.

"Baahubali" star Tamannaah, who grew up watching her father in the jewellery business, launched her own jewellery line Wite and Gold this April.

"I always feel that lucky are those people who get a chance to take their passion as profession and turn into something more. I was lucky twice, I got that first with acting and I am doing it again now with jewellery," Tamannaah told IANS.

She said that she wants to bring out jewellery for her fans, who enjoy the element of style in her films.

Telugu actor Chaitanya Krishna decided to turn his love for sweets into moolah when he co-founded Sweet Experience, a company that home-delivers fresh sweets straight from the interiors of Andhra Pradesh, earlier this year.

"My love for sweets was the inspiration behind this company. As an actor, I'm not sure what's ahead of me. I'm not saying I'm insecure about my future but there's some degree of uncertainty in this profession. This business opportunity will give me some financial support to lean on," he said.

Chaitanya's role will be confined to chief marketing officer. He will market the products and also serve as the company's spokesperson.

Nisha Aggarwal believes actors have a shelf life and hence, she decided to go solo with her jewellery brand, Marsala.

Another popular southern actress Lekha Washington runs her own product design company called Ajji.

(Haricharan Pudipeddi can be contacted at haricharanpudipeddi@gmail.com)