Prakash Jha narrates his journey from being assistant to film director

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 14 : Prakash Jha has carved his niche in Bollywood as an acclaimed screenwriter and director. He proved his mettle as a filmmaker with his movies such as 'Raajneeti', 'Apaharan', 'Gangaajal', among others. However, his journey to fame was full of ups and downs. From being an assistant to the filmmaker Chand to creating his films, he has gone through a lot.
He recalled how while being a spectator on the sets of the 1973 film 'Dharma', directed by Chand starring, Navin Nischol and Rekha, he decided to become a filmmaker.
Talking about it, he told ANI, "In Mumbai, I had a good friendship with art director, Agha Jani. One day he told me that he was going to meet the director Chand and I accompanied him. We took a train from, we used to live in Dahisar and came to Santa Cruz. The shooting of the 'Dharma' film was going on in the hotel. Stars like Pran Sahab, Navin Nischol, and Rekha were there. I stood in a corner and I saw the trolleys being laid, the lights being set up. And there was a song going on and there were the actors and the music and everything. And I said, my God. This is it. This is what I would like to do. Director banna hai mujhe (I want to become a director)".
He added, "I stood there for 12 hours. I did not move from a corner out of fear so that no one would remove me from there. I went back to the Dahisar and met Agha Jani in the night and asked him to introduce me to Chand sahib, I want to be his assistant."
Jha continued, "He was very kind and the next day he took me for the meeting with Chand sahib. I was his 13th assistant, he already had 12. I just needed to be around shooting. However, in four days, I realized that this was very difficult and I wanted to be a filmmaker. I saw his assistant remain assistant for ten or twelve years. So, at the end of the schedule, 4-day schedule, they finished the song. And I took a train, I went to Pune."
He was admitted to FTII in the period around 1972-73. "I was aware of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). And since I had not graduated, I was qualified only for one course, which was film editing. So I came back, I took a job in a restaurant and I took admission to KC College."
He did the editing course after that as he mentioned, "The semester started and I appeared in the competition the next year."
Recalling about his batchmates at that time, he added, "My classmate and batchmate was David Dhawan. We went in two different ways. But we were together in the class. There were lots of people. Like, Naseer (Naseeruddin Shah), Om Puri was with us. Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Kundan Shah were at the same time. Ravi Ojha, who is a well-known TV director was with us. Several very good technicians, like Binod Pradhan was with us, Rajan Kothari was with us. So it was a very illustrious batch."
He continued sharing about his meeting with the acclaimed people of the industry during his course, "We used to meet in the institute. We were companions. It was a very small batch. It was a batch of 40-50 people. So we used to meet in the institute. We used to work for each other because we were working for someone for the camera, for someone for editing."
He added that many worked with him in movies in later years. "Later, Naseer worked with only, in only one film with me in 'Raajneeti' but several others have worked. Tom Alter was there with us as a student. Girish Karnad used to be our director. "
However, the institution was closed for a while due to student agitation, so he came to Mumbai. " The institute was closed for a while. We came here."
After that, there was no looking back and he gained recognition with his movies such as 'Hip Hip Hurray', 'Damul', 'Mrityudand', 'Gangaajal', and many more.