Priyadarshan: Akshay Kumar deserved the award, so he won!
| Apr 8, 2017, 12:59 IST
Eminent producer, writer and director, Priyadarshan, who headed the features film jury for the 64th National Film Awards found himself in the midst of the controversy over the decision to award Akshay Kumar the Best Actor honour for 'Rustom'. While there was a lot of noise over the fact that Akshay's performance in 'Airlift' was as commendable, Priyadarshan later stated that the actor had won the award for both the films.
Talking about the same, the head of the features film jury, Priyadarshan said, "The jury considered him for both films but since the rules specify that he can only win for one film, we decided on 'Rustom'."
However in the year 2016, where we had performances like Aamir's 'Dangal', Salman's 'Sultan', Amitabh Bachchan's 'Pink' and Manoj Bajpayee's 'Aligarh', there were various questions regarding Akshay's win for 'Rustom'. Countering the claims, Priyadarshan said, "Akshay Kumar deserved the award and so we gave it to him. There were a total of 38 jury members with me on this. How can you question the decision of so many people? Ramesh Sippy headed the jury last year. When he gave Best Actor to Amitabh Bachchan for 'Piku' why didn’t anyone question him?"
A lot of people, including director Hansal Mehta, expressed their disappointment over the fact that 'Aligarh' did not win a single National Award. When asked about the same, Priyadarshan said, "'Aligarh' did not make it to the final list of 89 films, which the jury saw. That list had mostly regional films many of which were really good."
When told that a lot of people were disappointed by his appointment as the jury chief, Priyadarshan laughed it off saying, "Even Satyajit Ray’s appointment was questioned. And if his appointment can be questioned, then so can anyone else’s!"
CREDITS: MUMBAI MIRROR
Talking about the same, the head of the features film jury, Priyadarshan said, "The jury considered him for both films but since the rules specify that he can only win for one film, we decided on 'Rustom'."
However in the year 2016, where we had performances like Aamir's 'Dangal', Salman's 'Sultan', Amitabh Bachchan's 'Pink' and Manoj Bajpayee's 'Aligarh', there were various questions regarding Akshay's win for 'Rustom'. Countering the claims, Priyadarshan said, "Akshay Kumar deserved the award and so we gave it to him. There were a total of 38 jury members with me on this. How can you question the decision of so many people? Ramesh Sippy headed the jury last year. When he gave Best Actor to Amitabh Bachchan for 'Piku' why didn’t anyone question him?"
A lot of people, including director Hansal Mehta, expressed their disappointment over the fact that 'Aligarh' did not win a single National Award. When asked about the same, Priyadarshan said, "'Aligarh' did not make it to the final list of 89 films, which the jury saw. That list had mostly regional films many of which were really good."
When told that a lot of people were disappointed by his appointment as the jury chief, Priyadarshan laughed it off saying, "Even Satyajit Ray’s appointment was questioned. And if his appointment can be questioned, then so can anyone else’s!"
CREDITS: MUMBAI MIRROR