For over four decades, actress Jaya Prada has been the quintessential glamourous star setting hearts aflutter on screen. Quite naturally, the excitement is palpable when she gears up to portray strong women. Her schedule is currently busy with shoots for films, web series and television. She is wading into different terrain to create a new body of work, says the actor during a brief visit to Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad to shoot for Drama Junior Season 6, a Zee Telugu reality show.
New projects
On the sets of ‘Drama Juniors Season 6’ (L to R) Host Pradeep Machiraju, Babu Mohan, Jaya Prada, Sridevi Vijaykumar and Prithveeraj | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Directed by Manoj Sati, her next film Riwaz is with Mithun Chakraborty. “It is a powerful role,” she says. “We follow a riwaaz (custom), a certain way of doing and cannot cross its limits. The movie shows what happens when we cross boundaries.”
She is most excited about VN Aditya’s Telugu comedy Love at 65 co-starring Rajendra Prasad. All she is willing to reveal is that the entertainer shows her in a new avatar, as a woman fascinated by fashion and dance but is constrained by her circumstances. The Sargam actor also makes an OTT debut this year with Fatima, a web series in Hindi. Directed by Sanjeev Rai, the series also stars Hiten Tejwani.
Jaya Prada
Reflecting on her second innings as an actor, she shares, “Earlier people would ask why I take up only glamorous roles. In showbiz, beauty has a short stint but performance-oriented roles are memorable. My roles in Telugu films such as Sagara Sangamam and Anthuleni Katha are for a lifetime. Now, when I am back on screen, I am offered characters which are different, real and performance-oriented. This industry has always supported me.”
Politics, she says, has brought this move to do powerful roles. “I have become wiser and stronger after joining politics. Movie-goers accepted me as a docile, gharelu (homely) kind of woman on screen. But now they too want me to portray strong characters.”
Having hosted Jaya Pradam and acted in TV serials like Perfect Pati, Jaya Prada is not new to the small screen. However, she dons a judge’s hat for the first time for the reality show Drama Junior in its sixth season, with actress Sridevi Vijaykumar and veteran comedian Babu Mohan as two fellow judges. The filming of the show for children (3 to 13 years) at Annapurna Studios was full of starry moments. “Meeku oka roja puvvu teddamanukunnanu, kaani meere oka roja puvvu laga unnaru (I wanted to bring you a rose but you already look like one,” says host Pradeep Machiraju to actress Jaya Prada who looks ravishing in a magenta gown and a captivating smile.
Judging a reality show
“It feels good to be part of Drama Juniors; and to see so many kids get a platform to showcase their talents; they would have never dreamt of being here,” she says. The pre-teen participants of the show, she says, remind her of her school days in Rajahmundry when she sang ‘Nannettu kellade na Swami ’ and was thrilled to receive a toy as a gift from her teachers. She is in awe of these little performers who are “competitive and can recite lengthy dialogues without fumbling.” Judging a performance is a task but for her, analysing a child’s act is even tougher. “If we say some performance is not up to the mark, the child starts crying and if we say it is good, the others could feel bad. We have to be sensitive and encouraging.”
Finally, before returning to the set, she says, “My journey in films has touched four decades, the ride has been successful and colourful. I am grateful to God, who has been kind and thanks to my family and well wishers for their unconditional love; my only wish now is to do films with tough subjects.”
A new journey on screen beckons a confident and assertive Jaya Prada.
