From Amitabh to Rajinikanth I directed them all Prayag Raj

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart… In his long innings, he's been actor, writer, lyricist, composer, singer and director. He has straddled three media – theater, films – both Indian and international – and television. Though largely inactive for a good many years now, the legendary Prayag Raj keeps in touch with industry goings-on and is game to work even today. "I am now writing a film for Siddharth Malhotra, Prem Krishen's son," he says.

The son of well-known poet Ram Das 'Azad', Prayag Raj, born in Allahabad and named after the city, happened to be in Mumbai when his father passed away and had to work to support his family. At the age of nine, he began working as a child actor with Prithvi Theatres in their stage productions. "I gradually took interest in everything, including writing and direction, in my 16-year sojourn with Prithvi, while continuing my formal education alongside," says the writer. "I got close to Shashi Kapoor, who was around my age and we struck up a close friendship."

Prayag Raj played every kind of role at Prithvi, on stage and backstage too. "I played many important roles and have been an understudy to Raj Kapoor-saab, Shammi Kapoor-saab and Shashi. When the company closed down, I became an apprentice to Raj-saab as well as M.Sadiq of Chaudhvin Ka Chand fame, Dada Gunjal and even Lekh Tandon on Professor." His first films as an actor were Aag (1948) and Awara (1951).

Prayag Raj's flirtations with acting continued in small cameos in many films like Professor itself. But he was primarily interested in writing and filmmaking. However, Lekh Tandon's project with Shammi Kapoor and a new project which was to mark his debut as writer never took off.

But soon, Prayag Raj did begin to get work. "I wrote Phool Bane Angaarey and Juari, was overall assistant on the blockbuster Jab Jab Phool Khile, wrote additional dialogues for Jhuk Gaya Aasmaan and began, thanks to Shashi, a lasting association with Ismail Merchant and James Ivory from Householder, in which I wrote the dialogues for the Hindi version. In their next, Shakespearewallah, I even composed and wrote a song, 'Dil Dhadke' that was included in the album and rendered by Mubarak Begum. I was given separate credit in this album that had music by Satyajit Ray. I was associated with Merchant and Ivory though many films all the way to Muhaffiz, In Custody and Cotton Mary, doing an important role in the latter and being a second-unit director on In Custody."
Prayag Raj feels blessed that his stints as assistant and writer were thus with filmmakers of an unimaginably varied spectrum. "The kind of films and the values of Lekh Tandon, Raj-saab, Suraj Prakash and Merchant-Ivory were so different. With Man-ji, I began writing for Saccha Jhutha, in which I even played the significant role of a tea-vendor. Our association spanned over 15 films right down to his son Ketan Desai's Deewana Mastana (1997), the Anil Kapoor-Govinda comedy."
Prayag turned director with the film Kundan in 1972. "For some reason people do not call it a success and I am baffled – because it recovered thrice its investment! I introduced Shatrughan Sinha as a hero."
And thereby hangs a tale. "I had written Bhai Ho To Aisa and Raampur Ka Lakshman and was amazed at people clapping at Shatrughan's entry and also applauding whenever he beat up Jeetendra and Randhir Kapoor. He was a natural scene-stealer like Raaj Kumar and was perfect for the role of a daaku."

Among the other films Prayag Raj directed that made money were Ponga Pandit and Chor Sipahee but his biggest hit remains Coolie. "I actually directed the film alone, but after Man-ji's dream run then of over 10 hits, the film would have commanded Rs 80 lakh with his name and only Rs 45 lakh with mine. But Man-ji was magnanimous – he took joint credit but he put my name first and in larger letters!" "Not many know", says the all-rounder, "that Bachchan's character was inspired by Karna, as written for a script by him that never took off!"

Prayag's other outings as writer included Raj Kapoor's Dharam Karam, Suraj Prakash's Aamne Saamne and much later Shashi Kapoor's Ajooba. "From Amitabh Bachchan to Rajinikanth, I directed them all," he says.
Somewhere in all this, the musician in Prayag Raj got sidelined. "It was I who sang the refrains Yahoo in the title-song of Shankar-Jaikishan's Junglee, Affu khuda in Kalyanji-Anandji's Humko tumse pyar aaya in Jab Jab Phool Khile and Allahrakha in Accident ho gaya in Laxmikant-Pyarelal's Coolie, all chartbusters," he says. "But struggling as a singer is a different, full-time game and I could not take chances with my family's fortunes," he says frankly.
Recently, however, he has come out with a CD of Ram Ganguly's compositions for the 1940s Prithvi plays. He has recreated the tunes and supervised the notations and interludes. Called Songs Of Prithvi Theatres, it is a piece of nostalgia.

Prayag Raj is content taking things easy. "My elder son Aditya Raj is well-settled outside films and the younger one, Rahul Raj, is into dubbing Hollywood films in Hindi," he says. "As a writer, I must keep abreast of what's happening in Hindi cinema and in recent times, among the films I have watched, I loved Singham, Bodyguard and Kahaani."

The veteran, however, holds no truck with fare like Delhi Belly and Gangs Of Wasseypur. "They have only been made with the intention to shock – that's not Indian cinema. Films like Gangs… are like the C-grade action dramas of my time. But I loved The Dirty Picture – if a biopic is made, it should be made as engaging as this was."

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