Prakash Jha: A look at his journey to becoming a filmmaker!

Known for his hard-hitting, social political dramas, filmmaker Prakash Jha has, over the years, carved a niche for himself in the industry. From Mrtyudand to Gangaajal to Rajneeti, the man has time and again proved his mettle as a visionary and a brilliant helmer. Jha, who is now gearing up for his next release, ‘Jai Gangaajal,’ celebrates his 64th birthday today on February 27, 2016. While the director is ready to take on yet another year of his life head-on, we thought of taking a look back at his remarkable journey so far…

Born in the Champaran district of Bihar, Prakash was raised on his family farm there. After completing his schooling, he joined Ramjas College in Delhi University to study Physics. However, his creativity led him to leave college within a year and head to Mumbai to become a painter. Prakash was preparing for J.J School of Arts, when his true calling came to him. He saw the shooting of the film ‘Dharma’ and turned his attention to film making. He then joined FTII, Pune in 1973 to do a course in editing. However, a student agitation at the institute led Jha to Mumbai.

Before foraying into the world of feature films, Prakash Jha made a few of politically centered documentaries. In 1975, he made his first documentary ‘Under The Blue’. He continued making impactful documentaries for the next 8 years. In 1984, his documentary on the Bihar Sharif riots titled, ‘Faces After Storm’ which won the National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film of the year, even though it was banned within 5 days of its release. Prakash’s debut feature film was ‘Hip Hip Hurray’ in 1983, which was scripted by Gulzar and starred Raj Kiran and Deepti Naval as leads and on he went to claim several awards with his forthcoming films. And if you thought that a serious cinematic experience was all the filmmaker had to offer, you’d be much mistaken. Jha was also the man behind one of the most famous comedy series India Television ever had, ‘Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne,’ starring Raghuvir Yadav.

Prakash Jha took a sabbatical from films in 1989 and went back to Bihar for four years. In 1996, Prakash Jha made his first come back film ‘Bandish’, starring Jackie Shroff and Juhi Chawala. This was followed by ‘Mrityudand’ in 1997, following which he took yet another break and came up with what was to be one of the highlights of his career ‘Gangaajal’ starring Ajay Devgan. ‘Jai Gangaajal’ marks yet another comeback of the director after ‘Satyagraha’ in 2013.

While the filmmaker gave several critically acclaimed film throughout his career, his first major commercial success was ‘Rajneeti.’ The film that starred Ajay Devgan, Manoj Bajpai, Naseeruddin Shah, Katrina Kaif, Arjun Rampal, Nana Patekar and Ranbir Kapoor, was a modern-day take on the epic, Mahabharat. Not just was the film lauded for its brilliant cinematic experience, but also set cash registers jingling. Following this, Jha had several successes to his credit with films like ‘Chakravyuh’ and ‘Satyagraha.’ His upcoming film, ‘Jai Gangaajal’ is also expected to be a box office hit.

Nothing less can be expected of a man who is a revolutionary at heart. Prakash Jha, who has done a lot of social work for the betterment of his statesmen, is a thorough perfectionist. During the shooting of ‘Raajneeti’, though Katrina does not have a great Hindi accent, Prakash Jha asked her to deliver long dialogues in chaste Hindi. The actress learnt the dialogues for hours, before delivering them without a single mistake! In fact, Priyanka too, recently posted on her Instagram page about how the director made grown men quake in their boots every time he picked up the director’s mike! The actress also mentioned that it was fun to watch when the director’s ire was directed elsewhere, but it was scary to be on the receiving end!