Many Bollywood actresses have donned the ditector’s hat in their career.
Sadhana- One of the top actresses of 60’s Sadhana got married to filmmaker RK Nayyar who was not a successful or popular figure by any means. Infact he was on the verge of bankruptcy due to multiple flop films. So they decided to make a film in the name of Sadhana. The film was Geeta Mera Naam. The film was directed by RK Nayyar but to evade the lenders to whom he owned money he put the name of Sadhna as director. The film was a moderate success and helped Rk Nayyar pay his debts. The person who was most profited from the success was however Sunil Dutt who was almost out of the industry after the failure of Reshma aur Shera and this was seen as his comeback film.
Hema Malini- After the end of her film career in early 90’s Hema Malini went into production and produced as well as directed some films and TV shows. She directed two films, both on the same story- a young girl trying to find the Identity of her real father. In 1992, she directed Dil Aashna hai starring Divya Bharti, Dimple Kapadia, Sonu Walia, Mithun Chakraborty, Jeetendra and SRK in one of his earliest roles. The film didn't worked well. In 2011 she remade the same story with a few changes to relaunch her daughter Esha Deol in the film Tell Me O Khuda, which clashed with SRK’s Ra.One. Tell Me O Khuda tanked badly. Apart from these two films she directed Noopor, Mohini (telefilm starring her niece Madhoo) and Women of India, three TV shows and television films.
Asha Parekh- Like Hema Malini, Asha Parekh also shifted to television in his late 50’s and directed a few television show including the famous Kora Kagaz, Kangan and Daal me Kuch Kaala Hai.
Revathi- One of the best actresses of Indian cinema, Revathi has worked in Hindi as well as South films and has directed multiple award winning films in Tamil, English and Hindi. In Hindi she has directed Phir Milenge on the issue of AIDS which received a lot of critical acclaim. She also directed Salaam Venky, another film which received a lot of acclaim. Her English film Mitr My Friend won 2 national awards. She also directed one of the segments of the anthology Mumbai Cutting.
Geetu Mohandas- This actress from Kerala has surprisingly not acted in any Bollywood film and has acted in Malayalam films by and large with a few Tamil films. But she has directed Hindi film Liar’s Dice in 2013 which won 2 national awards and was India's entry to Oscars. She also directed Hindi Malayalam bilingual Moothoon in 2019 and is currently directing Yash’s next Pan Indian film Toxic.
Shammi- Largely known for supporting and character roles actress Shammi turned producer in the 1980’s producing the film Pighalta Aasman which was directed by Esmayl Shroff. But after a lot of shooting Esmayl Shroff had a fallout with the cast and producers of the film and walked out. So Shammi took the baton of director and completed the film herself which failed badly at the box office.
Divya Khosla Kumar - largely known as the ex wife of Bhushan Kumar of T Series Divya Khosla Kumar started her career as an actress working in films like Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo which failed. After many years of marital bliss she returned on screen with Yaariyan in 2014 as a director which was a big hit due to its melodious music. After this she returned to acting torturing us with horrible movies like Satyamev Jayate 2 and half a dozen music albums. She has last acted in films like Ek Chatur Naar and Saavi which failed. Having seperated from Bhushan Kumar ideally her acting career may have also come to an end.