Prakash Jha is always blunt when it comes to speaking his mind. The director, who is known for films like Gangajal, Aarakshan and Raajneeti, had earlier too spoken up about how he has been having trouble getting dates of A-listers, and do not want to work with them. Now, he has criticised ‘top and legendary’ stars for making money out of selling ‘gutkhas’.
Talking to TOI, Prakash Jha 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.”
The Aashram director also opened up about the star system and 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.”
Prakash Jha has recently made the film, Matto Ki Saikil. It depicts the story of a daily-wage labourer whose life gets affected when his cycle gets damaged. The film, which had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in 2020, releases in cinemas on September 16.
