National Award-winning director Prakash Jha will be shooting his next series, a biopic on former Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao, in Uttar Pradesh and a sequel of his multi-starrer blockbluster Raajneeti too is supposedly set in the state capital.
“I will be shooting a portion of my next series in UP. Also, the sequel to Raajneeti is all set to be shot in Lucknow and we have already zeroed on the locations as well. But I won’t be able to tell when we will start the shoot. Right now, we are busy with a couple of web-series , as during the pandemic scenario changed and we got good proposals so we are going ahead with them.”
On being asked if he enjoying making web-series more, he says, “Making a series is just like making a film for me! There is no difference in terms of shooting infrastructure, unit and methodology. The only difference is the long format. When we shot it was initially scheduled to be just one season but the canvas was too big so we divided it in two seasons and now we are in for the third season.”
Jha accepts that pressure of opening is not there but release stress surely exists. “True that we don’t have the collection stress like we have for films but pressure is there be it series or films. If projects work on OTT, audience like it and it gets views. A lot of churning is happening between both cinema and OTT. Not everything is working in cinema or web! There are so many web-series but are people watching everything? No!”
On the current scenario and success of films from South he says, “I don’t see it as a challenge. It’s not that every film from South is working pan-India. Whichever content is good, popular, rooted and with which people connect it works. More than stars now it depends on story, engagement and content.”
Jha shot two seasons of Aashram in Ayodhya but moved out for the next. Why? “We wanted to grow with the story as protagonist had grown bigger so the palace and other things have to be bigger. Also, now sensitivities are involved in a city so we moved to Jaipur and Bhopal where everything was smooth barring one incident (in Bhopal where he was manhandled).”
In the era of sequels, he feels only one of his films will go into sequel. “Raajneeti is the only project where story was incomplete so it will surely go into sequel. In fact, Gangajal and Jai Gangajal were two different films.”
Jha recently wrapped a film where he is acting. “I have shot a film which has been helmed by another director and hopefully it will release in September. I enjoy acting but I’m not doing that in my projects as it’s too much pressure.”
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