Bhojpuri hero Nirahua recalls being beaten up with stick by Jaya Bachchan on ‘Ganga Devi’ set

Dinesh Lal Yadav, better known as Nirahua, has worked in dozens of Bhojpuri blockbusters. But one memory still stands out in his career: the day Jaya Bachchan beat him up with a stick. And no, it wasn’t a prank. It happened for real during the shooting of the 2012 Bhojpuri film ‘Ganga Devi’.

Imagine this for a second: a young Bhojpuri superstar, nervous and excited, standing in front of Bollywood royalty Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. For Nirahua, it was nothing less than standing before gods. Speaking to Siddharth Kannan in a recent chat, he recalled that unforgettable experience with both fondness and laughter.

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“When I first heard that I’d be sharing the screen with Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya ji, I was blank,” Nirahua admitted. “They are like gods to me. The moment I saw them in front of me, I didn’t know how to react.”

But it didn’t take long for the ice to break, because Amitabh Bachchan was warm to him. Nirahua revealed that Big B quickly noticed his nervousness and made him feel at home. “He started cracking jokes, talking about my songs, laughing. He completely changed the atmosphere. It was like magic. He is such a great man,” Nirahua said.

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While Amitabh made things light, Jaya Bachchan, on the other hand, left Nirahua with a rather painful but funny memory. The Bhojpuri actor recalled a particular scene where his character had to slap his on-screen wife. Jaya Bachchan, playing his mother, was supposed to react and scold him. And as part of that, she had to hit him with a stick.

But here’s the twist. “She didn’t pretend,” Nirahua laughed. “She actually hit me. And she hit me hard! She is very short-tempered.”

He added that it wasn’t just once. “She beat me up a couple of times. I told her, ‘Jaya ji, you’re really hitting me!’ And she replied, ‘Then why did you beat up my daughter-in-law?’ I said, ‘That was just acting, but you really hit me!’”

When asked if the stick blows actually hurt him, Nirahua confessed, “Maybe it was accidental, but yes, I was hurt. Still, I considered it as prasad (a blessing). After all, how many people in this world get the chance to work with both Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan together?”

‘Ganga Devi’, directed by Abhishek Chadha, was a special project in many ways. It featured Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan together in a Bhojpuri film, with Nirahua in the lead, alongside Pakhi Hedge.

It also marked the Bhojpuri debut of Bollywood’s “bad man” Gulshan Grover. The film was produced by Deepak Sawant, Amitabh Bachchan’s long-time make-up artist of over 30 years, with music by Madhukar Anand.