Prakash Jha makes acting debut as cop

 After saying “light, camera, action” for more than 30 years, veteran filmmaker Prakash Jha is now making his debut as an actor in his forthcoming movie ‘Jai Gangaajal’.

The 68-year-old Jha, who originally hails from Bihar’s Bettiah district, will be seen playing the role of a corrupt police officer. “I am making my acting debut in the role of a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Bhola Nath Singh, who works under an upright IPS officer Abha Mathur, played by Priyanka Chopra,” Jha told Deccan Herald.

Though the writer-producer-director has appeared once on the screen in his previous movie Satyagrah, it was a blink-and-miss role. Jha’s latest flick, slated to be released on March 4, has the main protagonist in Priyanka, playing a tough cop, who is initially under-rated but later gives sleepless nights to local politicians. One such leader is an MLA from Bankipore played by Manav Kaul, who recently won plaudits for his acting skills while sharing screen space with Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar in Wazir.

However, it is this negative character of Bankipore MLA which has created legal hurdles for Prakash Jha. Though Jha insists that the character has no resemblance with any living or dead person, the real life BJP MLA from Bankipore, Nitin Navin, took umbrage over his defamatory portrayal. The aggrieved leader has now moved the Patna High Court seeking the court’s directive to restrain Jha from releasing the movie which shows the elected representatives of Bankipore and Lakhisarai in poor light. 

The petitioners have pleaded that they were not seeking ban on the movie but they want the names — Bankipore and Lakhisarai — omitted from the movie.