Everyone from Ridley Scott to Guy Ritchie has dabbled with ads, and now several Indian feature film-makers seem to be taking a cue from their international counterparts.
The last few years have seen feature film-makers with impressive box office successes trying their hand at 30-second commercials - these include Ashutosh Gowariker (director of the Oscar-nominated Lagaan) on Coca-Cola, Vidhu Vinod Chopra (Parinda, Mission Kashmir) with a campaign for ICICI Bank campaign a few years ago, and Shaad Ali, fresh from the success of blockbuster Saathiya, on the latest Pepsi campaign for India.
Bollywood hunk Hrithik Roshan has seen a fair amount of action both in feature films as well as commercial endorsements.
"A film takes about two years to get released. In an ad, the time spent is less, and the pay-off more immediate," he says.
"It's good money for a short time and there's not much damage, even if turns out (to be) not so good."
Prasoon Joshi, national creative director for McCann-Erickson, has used feature film-makers on more than one occasion.
"Apart from the lower time commitment, I think people have seen that commercials also have an equal, if not greater, impact on people's lives," he says.
"Lines from commercials are becoming as popular as famous lines from films."
Most film-makers also welcome the opportunity to break away from mammoth soap operatic movies or frenetic action sequences.
In addition, given that an average Indian feature film keeps its audience riveted for the better part of three hours, creative directors feel these film-makers will be able to bring some of that mass appeal and sticky viewership to a 30-second format.
Also, in commercials that star some of the industry's biggest names, feature film-makers are more adept at handling these notoriously temperamental actors than someone with no feature film experience might.