Though his latest film as a producer- ‘Khoya Khoya Chand' starring Shiney Ahuja, Rajat Kapoor and Soha Ali Khan in the main leads and Sudhir Mishra as the director has been termed as a big disaster by the trade papers, Prakash Jha is happy with the accolades that his film has garnered.

Sitting in his spacious office sipping coffee, Jha says that it was the whole ambience of the 50's and the make believe glitz, glamour and the gossips that appealed to him and prodded him to set out to produce a film like ‘Khoya Khoya Chand'.

When asked why he set out to ask another director to direct his film when in the first place he himself is an accomplished director, he does not mince words.

"Look here. I have a well knit production team and hence it is very imperative that we make different kinds of films and TV software, not necessarily my kind of cinema."

Citing the example of his film ‘Dil Dosti' etc starring Shreyas Talpade, Nikita Anand and Smriti Mishra to prove his point, Jha continues, "No one would have even wildly imagined that a guy like me could even set out to produce a film like ‘Dil Dosti' etc.

The finesse was completely in contrast to the kind of milieu that I generally churn out. I was able to recover whatever I had invested in the film because it appealed to the youth for whom it was targeted in the first place."

The reason the director says that he has not launched a film as a director after his last one ‘Apaharan' is that his personal involvement in Jharkand and Bihar as a politician and social activist keeps him busy 24/7 leaving him with hardly any time to concentrate on film making though he is keen on launching his film ‘Rajniti' as early as possible.

He says that he is happy with his track record till date as a filmmaker. "I have made nine films till date right from my first ‘Damul' till my latest ‘Khoya Khoya Chand'.

I make it a point to see around and weave reality into my stories. I am extremely proud that as a conscientious filmmaker, a section of my films have dealt with social problems like ‘Damul', ‘Gangajal', ‘Apaharan' etc.

Prakash Jha's next film ‘Rajniti' will be launched sometime in February next year. The film, according to him will have Ajay Devgan, his staunch favorite, be it ‘Gangajal' or for that matter ‘Apaharan' in the main lead, along with three more top leading men. "I have written the story of ‘Rajniti' which will be a political satire".

The hard core message which Jha says he wants to drive home through his film ‘Rajniti' is that democracy is the biggest farce that is played on the people of this country. Jha adds.

"Rajniti will also have Nana Patekar in a pivotal role besides two actresses who will play the mother- in -law and the daughter- in -law."

He does not hesitate to go on record that while Ajay Devgan is his favorite, Nana Patekar is his friend and hence when he sets out to make a film, he automatically thinks of casting both of them in it, provided the roles suit them and the script demands that he cast formidable actors like them.

Besides ‘Rajniti' which will be directed by Prakash Jha himself, he is also working on the scripts of four more films. So does he plan to cast his friend Ajay Devgan and friend Nana Patekar in all the four films?

"I do not start casting for any film of mine till the script is ready. As a production house, our target is to make at least five films every year from next year onwards, with the average budget for each film in the vicinity of around eight to nine crore."

Prakash Jha says that though he is at the helm of his production house, he is not at all greedy to direct each and every film that his company sets out to produce.

"Like I asked Sudhir Mishra to direct ‘Khoya Khoya Chand' which I produced, Nana Patekar has also consented to directing a film for me. In fact right now Nana is busy working on a script for me, in keeping with his sensitivity.

The last film that he had directed was ‘Prahar' for producer Sudhakar Bokade. It is almost after a gap of a decade that Nana will be directing another film."

In the meantime, he is making a mega serial called ‘Bahu Bali' for Doordarshan with actors like Mukesh Tiwari, Vishnu Sharma, Daya Shankar Pandey etc, with Anshuman as the director.

He is also all set to revive his earlier popular series ‘Mungerilal' by launching it in a new avatar as ‘Naye Mungeri Ki Naye Sapne'.

Though his earlier series had initially starred Raghubir Yadav as the protagonist, the new series will have a new actor who he plans to cast after extensive auditions all over the country." -Jyothi Venkatesh