Prakash Jha Age, Wife, Family, Children, Caste, Biography & More

Bio
Real Name	Prakash Jha
Profession	Director, Producer, Actor, Screenwriter, Politician
Political Party	Janata Dal (United) -JD(U)
Political Journey	2004: Contested as an Independent candidate but lost the election to the Lok Sabha from his native Champaran. 2009: Contested again and lost the election to the Lok Sabha in 2009 as Lok Janashakti Party candidate from West Champaran. 2014: Contested elections as a JD(U) candidate from Bettiah and lost again.
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	in centimeters- 178 cm in meters- 1.78 m in feet inches- 5’ 10”
Weight (approx.)	in kilograms- 70 kg in pounds- 154 lbs
Eye Colour	Dark Brown
Hair Colour	Black
Personal Life
Date of Birth	27 February 1952 (Wednesday)
Age (as of 2024)	72 Years
Birth Place	West Champaran, Bihar, India
Zodiac sign/Sun sign	Pisces
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	West Champaran, Bihar, India
School	Sainik School Tilaya, Koderma district and Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1, Bokaro Steel City, Jharkhand
College	Ramjas College, Delhi University, New Delhi
Educational Qualification	B.Sc (Hons) in Physics (Dropout)
Debut	Documetary: Shree Vats (1982) Film Directorial: Hip Hip Hurray (1984) TV Directorial: Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne (1989) Acting: Jai Gangaajal (2016)
Family	Father- Tejnath Jha Mother- Not Known Brothers- Praveen Jha (Professor), Prabhat Jha Sister- 1 (Younger)
Religion	Hinduism
Caste	Brahmin
Address	• A 4-BHK flat on the 29th floor, Mumbai • A house in village Barharwa, Post Office Turahapalti, Police Station: Sirisio, Anchal Chmopatia, Dist. West Champaran
Hobbies	Painting, cooking, playing piano, singing
Controversies	• In 2003, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA government was at the centre, they asked Jha to make a film based on Jayaprakash Narayan, a famous political leader and activist who launched a mass movement against Indira Gandhi's government in 1974. He made the film called 'Loknayak Jayaprakash' and presented it to the Prasar Bharti Corporation who promised him to air it on 11 October, JP's birth anniversary. But at that time, Congress-led UPA government came into power and asked him to 'modify' the film and show the Emergency in a positive light, which Jha found absolutely wrong. As Jha couldn't do much and had to make some minor changes after which Prasar Bharati telecasted his controversial film 'Lok Nayak' on 6 December 2004. • In 2013, he lodged an F.I.R. in Kolkata and Patna against a person who was impersonating as his son, Priyaranjhan Jha, and had done a fraud by taking money from someone by falsely promising to have organized an event on 14 August 2013 for the promotion of his film 'Satyagraha.' • His co-produced film 'Lipstick Under My Burkha' was supposed to release in January 2017, but after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) refused a certificate, due to the sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society, he appealed it to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT). The FCAT viewed the film suggested some more cuts and directed the CBFC to issue an A certificate to the movie after the changes, after which the film was released on 21 July 2017.
Favourite Things
Favourite Food	Chicken curry
Favourite Actors	Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Irrfan Khan
Favourite Actress	Priyanka Chopra
Favourite Films	Bollywood: Ashani Sanket, Teesri Kasam, Ankur, Manthan, Mirch Masala, Chak De! India Hollywood: Whiplash
Favourite Filmmakers	Mrinal Sen, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polanski, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut
Favourite Political Leader	Jayaprakash Narayan
Girls, Affairs and More
Marital Status	Divorcé
Affairs/Girlfriends	Deepti Naval (Actress)
Wife/Spouse	Deepti Naval (Actress - m.1985–div.2002)
Children	Son- N/A Daughter- Disha Jha (Adopted - Producer, Assistant director)
Money Factor
Net Worth (as in 2014)	INR 92 crore

Some Lesser Known Facts About Prakash Jha

• Does Prakash Jha smoke?: Not Known

• Does Prakash Jha drink alcohol?: Not Known

• Prakash was born into a family of zamindars and was raised on his family’s farm in Champaran, Bihar.

• He quit his college midway because his family wanted him to complete his graduation so that he could compete for the UPSC exams and become an IAS officer.

• After leaving his college, he went back to his hometown and bought a Yashica camera, and left his home with INR 300 in his pocket. This step of his dented his relations with his parents as they didn’t talk with him for around 5 years.

• When he was travelling to Mumbai to become a painter, he came in contact with a building contractor during his journey in a train, who took Jha to his building in Dahisar, Mumbai, and provided him with accommodation in exchange to which Jha used to write his accounts work.

• He found his life goals when he met an art director called Aghajani Kashmeri who was doing the shooting of the film ‘Dharma’ (1973), starring Pran, Rekha, and Navin Nischol.  He watched the shooting for the entire day and was so much impressed with the film making process that he decided to become a filmmaker. Aghajani Kashmeri helped him a lot as he introduced him to Chand, director of the film ‘Dharma’ after which he became his assistant on the film.

• In order to professionally learn the art of filmmaking he wanted to enroll at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), in Pune, but he was a bit late as admissions had closed.

• To become a graduate, he took admission at K C College in Mumbai and worked at a restaurant as the assistant manager with a salary of INR 300.

• After he completed his first year, he joined the film editing course in FTII, but he left the course midway because of a strike at the Institute. After it,  he went back to Mumbai in search of a job. 

• His career took a turn when he got an opportunity to make a documentary on Goa. His friend introduced him to the then chief minister of Goa, Shashikala Kakodkar, who wanted to make documentaries to boost tourism in Goa. 

• From 1975 to 1981, he made many documentaries for Films Division of India, during which he won the National Award for his documentary ‘Faces After The Storm’ which he made in the middle of a riot. Unfortunately, the documentary was banned by the government soon after its release.

• Though, his family didn’t talk to him from 1972 and 1976, after they saw his first documentary ‘Under the Blue’, his parents felt proud of him, came to Mumbai and came close again.

• In 1984, he made his first feature film ‘Hip Hip Hurray’, which was a sports film with football as the backdrop.

• In 1985, he made ‘Damul’, which was based on a story about labour, which won the National Award in 1987.

• He got married to film actress Deepti Naval in 1985, but he the couple got separated just 2 years after their marriage. After 15 years of silence, the couple got divorced but since then they have maintained a close friendship.

• In 1989, he made cult comedy ‘Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne’, which was aired on Doordarshan TV.

• During the early 1990s, there was a drop in art films, after which he left Mumbai for Bihar and lived there for around 3 years with a thought in his mind that he is not capable enough to make commercial films.

• In 1991, he founded ‘Anubhooti’, a registered society that has been working for cultural development, improvement of health care, disaster management and the upliftment of farmers and socio-economic backward people in Bihar. 

• He tasted his first success with ‘Mrityudand’ (1997), starring Madhuri Dixit, Shabana Azmi, and Om Puri. 

• In 1999, he made his first commercial film ‘Dil Kya Kare’, starring Ajay Devgn and Kajol. 

• His cult political film ‘Gangaajal’ (2003) was initially offered to Akshay Kumar, who declined the film after which it went to Ajay Devgn.

• Politics proved to be a bitter experience for him as he contested thrice but lost every time.

• If he wasn’t a filmmaker, he would have been a painter.