Later, he joined Ramjas College, Delhi University to do BSc (Hons) in Physics, though he left his studies after one year,[4] and decided to go to Bombay (present-day Mumbai) and become a painter.

He graduated from KC College, Mumbai[5][6] He joined the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune in 1973, to do a course in editing.

Midway through it, the institution was closed for while due to student agitation, so he came to Bombay, started working, and never went back to complete the course.

[4] During this period he made some highly politically charged documentaries, like the one of the Bihar Sharif riot, titled, Faces After Storm (1984).

It starred Ajay Devgan, Manoj Bajpai, Naseeruddin Shah, Katrina Kaif, Arjun Rampal, Nana Patekar and Ranbir Kapoor, and was a critical and commercial success.

His next venture was Aarakshan, which starred Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan Deepika Padukone and Prateik Babbar.

Jha once again contested in the 16th Lok Sabha election in 2014 as a Janata Dal (United) candidate from Paschim Champaran and lost to Sanjay Jaiswal.

[32] Prakash Jha is the chairman of Anubhooti,[33] a registered society that has been working for cultural development, improvement of health care, disaster management and the upliftment of farmers and socio-economically backward people in Bihar since 1991.