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| Prayagraj wrote the first 75 episodes of the super-hit TV serial Chandrakanta but quit because of problems with the producer. He also wrote the serial Betaal and was on the faculty of Direction and Writing for Vasant Talreja's Digital Academy.
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| Prayag Raj began as a child artiste in Prithviraj Kapoor’s plays and in early RK Films like Aag (1948) and Awara (1951). Learning the ropes of every department of filmmaking, he struck up a friendship with Shashi Kapoor that endures to this day |
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| When Ismail Merchant and James Ivory launched their English film The Householder with Shashi, the latter recommended Prayag Raj as the dialogue writer for the Hindi version. The music was by Satyajit Ray, but Prayag composed one song in the film too, and on its LP record on EMI. Prayag was given full billing along with a brief introduction!
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| Prayag Raj’s first Hindi film as writer, which is what he became most successful at, was Juari. But it was the super-hit Jab Jab Phool Khile that established him in 1965.
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| Though Prayag Raj originally wanted to be a singer, he ended up recording only some parts of hit songs – but they were vital ones. It was Prayag who voiced ‘Kukku’ for the super hit ‘Mast baharon ka main aashiq’ in Laxmikant – Pyarelal’s Farz, ‘Affu Khuda’ in Kalanji – Anandji’s Humko tum pe pyar aaya’ in Jab Jab Phool Khile and above all ‘ yahoo!’ in Shankar-Jaikishan’s Junglee. All these songe were sung by Mohammed Rafi, who actually offered him tea from his own flask after seeing him give several retakes for the last film!
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| The last dong for which Prayag gave ‘additional vocals’ was L-P’s Coolie (1983) which he directed too. The refrain ‘Allahrakha’ was sung by Prayag in this Asha Bhosli Shabbir Kumar hit ‘Accident ho gaya’.
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| Prayagalso wrote ‘Jawani ki Rail’ (Coolie) and also a few other songs in films like Gairkanooni, Allahrakha, Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswati, Maang Saja Do Meri, Toofan and Maahir in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
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| The only dong in which he sang the main lines was Kalayanji-Anandji’s hit ‘She is very pretty’ from Priya (1969).
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