Prakash Jha criticises ‘legendary actors’ for selling gutkhas

• Prakash Jha, a director and producer, has complained of “great, renowned actors” selling gutkha (tobacco) and refusing to appear in his movies.
• Prakash addressed his earlier remark that he finds it difficult to cast stars in a new interview.
• He added that it had been a while since he had worked on a movie with a “huge celebrity.”

Prakash Jha, a director and producer, has complained of “great, renowned actors” selling gutkha (tobacco) and refusing to appear in his movies. Prakash addressed his earlier remark that he finds it difficult to cast stars in a new interview. He added that it had been a while since he had worked on a movie with a “huge celebrity.” Prakash further stated that celebrities will “come to me instinctively” when they take time away from tobacco sales to concentrate on content.

When asked if he believed performers didn’t take responsibility for their work, he responded that they didn’t have the time since an actor who had “five flops” and was “shooting for 12 ad films” and collecting “10 crores for each of them” didn’t have the time. Additionally, Prakash stated that his “entirely focused on content generation.”

In an interview, Prakash said, “There are 5-6 actors. Look at the condition of these actors. Why will they work in my films when they get ₹50 crores for doing one gutkha advertisement? The actors are selling gutkha. Can you imagine? What are these top, legendary actors doing? We had gone to a school for location scouting. The principal of the school asked me what are you guys doing in the Mumbai film industry? The boys in our school are caught chewing gutkha. Roam around the north through Lucknow, Prayagraj and Mugalsarai, there are big hoardings put up where all our big stars are selling all types of gutkhas (tobaccos) and paan masalas.”

Speaking on ‘star system’, he said, “What do we do about the system? Unless and until we don’t correct our filmmaking process. The filmmaking process doesn’t start with money, it starts with the subject. It starts with the passion of making cinema. It can’t start with the 500-crore funding that you have got, so you can make anything. That’s what is happening…I have not sat idle even for a day. I have been producing content constantly. I haven’t made a film with a big star in a while, but I have made other stuff. That’s fine, I’m happy about it. When stars take time out from selling gutkhas and want to focus on content, they will come to me automatically.”

 

Parinati (1989), Mrityudand (1997), Dil Kya Kare (1999), Gangaajal (2003), Apaharan (2005), Raajneeti (2010), Aarakshan (2011), Pareeksha, and Saand Ki Aankh are just a few of the movies Prakash has produced in recent years (2019).

Additionally, he created the web series Aashram, which includes Vikram Kochhar, Bobby Deol, Aaditi Pohankar, Darshan Kumar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Tushar Pandey, and Anupriya Goenka among others. The first season debuted on MX Player in August 2020, followed by the second season in November 2020 on the OTT service. The series has been renewed for a fourth season, which is anticipated to premiere next year. The third season debuted in June 2022.