Prakash Jha Age, Wife, Family, Children, Caste, Biography & MoreCelebrityStats.com

Some Lesser Known Facts About Prakash Jha

Prakash was born into a family of zamindars and was raised on his family’s farm in Champaran, Bihar.

He quit his college midway because his family wanted him to complete his graduation so that he could compete for the UPSC exams and become an IAS officer.

After leaving his college, he went back to his hometown and bought a Yashica camera, and left his home with INR 300 in his pocket. This step of his dented his relations with his parents as they didn’t talk with him for around 5 years.

When he was travelling to Mumbai to become a painter, he came in contact with a building contractor during his journey in a train, who took Jha to his building in Dahisar, Mumbai, and provided him with accommodation in exchange to which Jha used to write his accounts work.

He found his life goals when he met an art director called Aghajani Kashmeri who was doing the shooting of the film ‘Dharma’ (1973), starring Pran, Rekha, and Navin Nischol. He watched the shooting for the entire day and was so much impressed with the film making process that he decided to become a filmmaker. Aghajani Kashmeri helped him a lot as he introduced him to Chand, director of the film ‘Dharma’ after which he became his assistant on the film.

In order to professionally learn the art of filmmaking he wanted to enroll at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), in Pune, but he was a bit late as admissions had closed.

To become a graduate, he took admission at K C College in Mumbai and worked at a restaurant as the assistant manager with a salary of INR 300.

After he completed his first year, he joined the film editing course in FTII, but he left the course midway because of a strike at the Institute. After it, he went back to Mumbai in search of a job.

His career took a turn when he got an opportunity to make a documentary on Goa. His friend introduced him to the then chief minister of Goa, Shashikala Kakodkar, who wanted to make documentaries to boost tourism in Goa.

From 1975 to 1981, he made many documentaries for Films Division of India, during which he won the National Award for his documentary ‘Faces After The Storm’ which he made in the middle of a riot. Unfortunately, the documentary was banned by the government soon after its release.

Though, his family didn’t talk to him from 1972 and 1976, after they saw his first documentary ‘Under the Blue’, his parents felt proud of him, came to Mumbai and came close again.

In 1984, he made his first feature film ‘Hip Hip Hurray’, which was a sports film with football as the backdrop.

In 1985, he made ‘Damul’, which was based on a story about labour, which won the National Award in 1987.

He got married to film actress Deepti Naval in 1985, but he the couple got separated just 2 years after their marriage. After 15 years of silence, the couple got divorced but since then they have maintained a close friendship.

In 1989, he made cult comedy ‘Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne’, which was aired on Doordarshan TV.

During the early 1990s, there was a drop in art films, after which he left Mumbai for Bihar and lived there for around 3 years with a thought in his mind that he is not capable enough to make commercial films.

In 1991, he founded ‘Anubhooti’, a registered society that has been working for cultural development, improvement of health care, disaster management and the upliftment of farmers and socio-economic backward people in Bihar.

He tasted his first success with ‘Mrityudand’ (1997), starring Madhuri Dixit, Shabana Azmi, and Om Puri.

In 1999, he made his first commercial film ‘Dil Kya Kare’, starring Ajay Devgn and Kajol.

His cult political film ‘Gangaajal’ (2003) was initially offered to Akshay Kumar, who declined the film after which it went to Ajay Devgn.

Politics proved to be a bitter experience for him as he contested thrice but lost every time.