We have studied the growth of self-assembled BaHfO₃ (BHO), BaZrO₃ (BZO) and BaSnO₃ (BSO) dopants in YBa₂Cu₃O_{6 + x} (YBCO) films grown on CeO₂ cap layered IBAD-MgO based metallic template by pulsed layer deposition process. The substrate induced defect formation and its impact on the growth of columnar-type of nanorods within the YBCO matrix is structurally investigated and their effect on critical current anisotropy is studied via molecular dynamics simulation model. We observed that the developed template greatly directs the growth mechanisms of different nanorods and thus modifies the critical current anisotropy of differently doped YBCO thin films.