After a two decade run as a leading film star followed by an equally successful role in politics, Jaya Prada is now at a crossroads: waiting for a new hero to lend her a much-needed helping hand.
Expelled from the Samajwadi Party a year ago, she is in no (wo)man’s land. Financial distress forces her to anchor TV programmes. The plot cannot get worse for a woman once hailed as “India’s most beautiful actress” by Satyajit Ray. As one way of staying in the limelight, Jaya went on a padayatra demanding a separate state of Poorvanchal. For a South Indian, with none of the big players — BSP, SP or Congress — willing to back her, the road ahead is misty.
Back home, with support from Chiranjeevi-backed television channel, Jaya Prada is anchoring a weekly programme, Jayapradam, featuring yesteryear stars which, she feels, has met with fairly good response. She is not ready yet to become a screen mother but is looking for a film in where she can play a relatively big part. Film circles in Hyderabad say she has approached Chiranjeevi’s production company but nothing has panned out yet. In the meantime, she is said to have sold her house in upmarket Jubilee Hills to raise money.
The bitterness over the turn of events is evident in the face of Rampur ki Rani, though she puts up a brave front. But then politics is politics, quite different from playing song-and-dance sequences in colourful locales.
When Amar Singh, more than a mentor to her, fell out with Mulayam, there was no way she could have continued in the Yadav chieftain’s party.
And Amar Singh himself is no longer the key player in Delhi he was in the past.
There is little that he could do to protect the glam doll with whom he sailed hand in hand for years.
Ask Jaya Prada herself and she gives the impression of a woman wronged in whichever party she was. “I never asked for high positions. If someone better than me was renominated to the Rajya Sabha, I would not have felt bad,” she recalls about Chandrababu Naidu denying her a second term, which forced her to drift away from Andhra politics all they way up to UP.
‘I stalled the Lok Sabha single-handedly’
By U Anand Kumar
What is your next goal in politics? I’ll decide at an appropriate time. I’ve three years in the Lok Sabha. Maybe after the Uttar Pradesh elections in 2012, a clear picture will emerge.
What will be your role in the UP polls? Options are open. We have our own agenda.
Join the Congress? I cannot say ‘no’ right now.
Everybody, including Mamata and TDP, are knocking on our doors. Whatever Amar Singhji decides, we will do that.
Go back to SP? Not in my lifetime.
Why were you expelled from SP? They never liked my success in Rampur. My remark on Rahul Gandhi angered the leader. They don’t want me to speak the truth. Rampur is Azam Khan territory.
To bring him back, there was no need to re-enact the Draupadi vastraaharan scene from the Mahabharat.
Once Renuka Chaudhary called you bimbo.
I retaliated, calling her a Jumbo. But I am not the Jaya Prada of old. I have proved myself in politics, getting re-elected from Rampur against all odds. I don’t take nonsense anymore.
Remember, I stalled the Lok Sabha proceedings single-handedly.
Will you quit films to devote time to politics? Well...I don’t want to give up on films at this stage in my life.
Are you advocating smaller states? While representing western UP, how come you are demanding division of eastern Uttar Pradesh? We need smaller states for development. When the Telangana agitation started, I used to be scared at the division of the state. After watching the poverty in eastern UP very closely, I am convinced about the concept of smaller states.
Do you think Telangana should be carved out of Andhra Pradesh? No one can stop it. The issue could have been handled properly and the loss of lives avoided.
How do you manage time for politics, films, TV shows and other activities? I am happy the way things are moving. I am doing films in various languages, besides TV shows. The TV show in Telugu, ‘Jayapradam’, is doing very well.
— anandkumar@expressbuzz.com