Happy Birthday Prakash Raj: A skilled producer overshadowed by the incredible actor

As Prakash Raj, our Chellam, turns 58, here's a look at how his contribution as a producer to Tamil cinema is most often overlooked.

By: Entertainment Desk

Chennai | March 26, 2023 08:59 AM IST

5 min read

It is Prakash Raj's birthday today. (Photo: Prakash/Instagram)

In a way, being a producer is a thankless job. Apart from the obvious monetary benefits, it is seldom a producer gets the name and fame similar to that of an actor or a director. How often do we recall a producer’s name while talking about a great film? So, it is understandable that DVV Danayya didn’t want to spend crores of money on RRR’s Oscar campaign. What’s in it for him? However, producers are people who frequently identify a good film even before it is made. While it is true that most of the lot look for a sellable product over great cinema, there are some rare gems that take the less obvious road. The incredible actor Prakash Raj is also one of those rare species of producers. While the stellar actor in him gets his due, Prakash Raj, the producer, is often forgotten.

After two middling production ventures — Dhaya and Naam– Prakash started a trend of feel-good films, which were quality entertainers of the time. Azhagiya Theeyae (2004), his third production venture, kickstarted the phase. The film about a bunch of assistant directors announced the entry of a new, polite but entertaining voice, director Radha Mohan. Azhagiya Theeyae might be a bit sappy for the current times, but it does have some great moments about friendship and camaraderie. Despite lacking star power and great production value, the movie found its audience as Prakash Raj bet on its content.

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The very next year Prakash Raj made another major contribution to Tamil cinema. He produced V Priya’s Kanda Naal Mudhal, another light-hearted romantic film, making her the director of an industry at a time when there weren’t even a handful of women filmmakers. While the low production value of Azhagiya Theeyae was evident from the set design, Prakash Raj went all out with Kanda Naal Mudhal. From roping in Yuvan Shankar Raja for music to getting PC Sreeram for cinematography, he made sure Priya had it all for her refreshing romantic tale. Kanda Naal Mudhal is easily one of the better romantic dramas of modern Tamil cinema, and for the first time, we had a new perspective on ego clashes between couples.

To date, his biggest achievement as a producer is making the wonderful romantic comedy Mozhi (2007), which also established Jyotika as a brilliant actor. It was the second collaboration of Radha Mohan and Prakash Raj, which turned out to be a humongous hit, making the latter’s Duet Movies a successful production house of the year. If one sets out to make a list of feel-good Tamil films of all time, Mozhi definitely has a place on it. Apart from producing it, Prakash Raj also played a supporting role as a friend to the hero. His characterisation broke the long-held stereotype of making such characters a hollow side-fiddle. In Mozhi, Viji (Prakash Raj) was as important as Karthik (Prithviraj). It is also one of the few films which treated a story about a differently-abled person without resorting to the usual melodramatic cliches.

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Prakash Raj has established himself as a producer who wants to make a different brand of movies which cares less about its stars and more about the content. Things reached their crescendo with Abhiyum Naanum. Even today a lot of fathers continue to have songs from the film as their caller tunes. In a sense, the film was a coming-of-age story of a dad, who begins to understand that his daughter is a separate individual and not just his little princess. It was a blockbuster hit and was remade in Kannada as Naanu Nanna Kanasu (Prakash Raj’s directorial debut).

Meanwhile, in Kannada cinema, Prakash Raj became a National-award winning producer for the film Puttakkana Highway, which won the Best Feature Film Award (Kannada) for the year 2010-2011. Unfortunately, like a lot of good things, Prakash Raj’s streak of wins came to an end with Puttakkana Highway. Dhoni (2012) and Gouravam (2013), despite being well-intentioned films, failed to make a mark at the box office. Though the incredible actor continues to produce films (with the latest one being Tadka in 2022), the attempts have become few and far in between. Yet, it takes nothing away from Prakash Raj, a rare producer who puts his money where his heart is.

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