Prakash Mehra 96 Views

In the 70’s when big time box office hits were being churned out one after the other, almost like a cascading effect, there were two people who were making the masalas happen. One of Amitabh Bachchan and the other was a Bijnor born Prakash Mehra.

Coming from Bijnor, right in the heartland of Uttar Pradesh and spending a part of his childhood in Gandhi gali in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, Prakash Mehra started as a Production Controller in Hindi films in 1950. He stepped up as a Producer Director with Shashi Kapoor starrer Haseena Maan Jayegi and then in 1973 onwards he churned out Zanzeer, Muqaddar ka Sikandar, Lawaris, Namak Halal and such other films and sealed his position as one of the Golden Directors of his time. Post the golden run, he didn’t have box office successes as most of his films in the 90’s except Dalali did not make the cut.

He even attempted a Hollywood collaboration in which Charles Bronson was supposed to have acted but the project, after some funding investment, fizzled out.

An interesting anecdote about Prakash Mehra: He was estranged from his parents and his relationship with his father was further distanced when he became a sadhu. The film Jaadugar was his perspective of his father and Acharya Rajneesh.He passed away on May 17, 2009.

Prakash Mehra will remain one of the major players in the film industry, in fact will continue to occupy a major chapter for time to come.