A few years ago, Prakash Jha decided that he wanted more from life. He was a well-known director-producer who had helmed hard-hitting, money-spinners like Gangaajal, Rajneeti and Chakravyuh. He was also dabbling in politics in his native Bihar. Jha decided to include more passions in his life. And just like that politics was dropped, and music and painting were added.
“It was a dream for me to learn the piano. I have a piano here in the office and another one in Patna, where my father lives. I go there once a month, so it makes sense for me to have one there. As for painting, I had moved to Mumbai in the 80s to become a painter, but somewhere that got side-tracked. Now, I’ve got an easel in the corner of my bedroom and I’ve been dabbling with colours. I have started doing things that I have been only thinking about for years,” he says.
This year, Jha plans to explore another hidden dream. “I am going to learn to fly this year, for which I’ll move to New Zealand this September for three months. This has been a childhood dream. My mother wanted me to become a pilot. I studied in a military school so I could have tried for the Indian Air Force, but I didn’t; though I never forgot my dream for flying. Earlier when they would allow passengers in the cockpit, I would spend all my time there with pilots.”
At 64, Jha is doing all the things he’s always wanted to do. Acting might not be top of that list, but the director is making his debut as an actor in his next film Jai Gangaajal. In the film, which stars Priyanka Chopra in the main lead, Jha explores the police-society relationship. “The film’s made up of several stories that I stumbled upon as I spoke to a host of IPS officers. We are quick to blame the cops, but they work under so many pressures and restrictions. A top-level officer who I was speaking to told me, ‘Do you think the police can take any kind of action independently today?’ If there is a crime somewhere, the police act because someone wants them to act; the police stops because someone wants it to stop. So, the police has no independence of its own when it comes to investigating a crime and maintaining law and order.”
In the film, Jha got a chance to work with an actor who he’s wanted to collaborate with for a long time. “Priyanka was always the first choice. She squeezed out some time between Bajirao (Mastani) and Quantico, and shot this. An amazing actress, she stunned me every day on the sets. I know her Abha Mathur will inspire police officers and want little girls to grow up to be like her. It’s a powerful role.”
Jha started thinking of acting around the time he was directing Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor in Rajneeti. “I thought maybe I can give it a shot. I had begun to enjoy the process of preparing the actor. They start working with me months in advance and we go through the process of reading, discussing and understanding the scenes and characters. So, acting wasn’t absolutely new to me. Acting is one of the most challenging of the arts because it demands the artist to expose himself.” BN Singh, a 50-something policeman, seemed like the perfect role for Jha to sink his teeth in. “The more I wrote him, the more I thought I could play him.”
Directing himself in the film was an interesting experience for Jha. “An actor’s life on the set is between action and cut. When you are directing yourself, you have to say action and cut, and perform in the time between those two words. It’s almost like you are a split personality—one that’s directing and the other performing. You just have to multi-task. Like when you are driving, you are checking the mirrors, steering, changing gears, deciding on the route, talking to the person with you… but you don’t really think of how much you are multi-tasking.”