National awards are biased, says AR Murugadoss
The 64th National Film Awards were announced yesterday. Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar and Malayali actress Surabhi Lakshmi won the honours in the acting category. Unlike last year, there was a conspicuous presence of regional films in all the major categories.
The jury this year was headed by master filmmaker Priyadarshan. Like every year, this time also the jury has come under a lot of scrutiny for some of their choices. There are allegations that Priyadarshan used his position to honour two of his best friends, Akshay Kumar and Mohanlal with the National awards.
Akshay won the best actor award for his performance in Rustom while Mohanlal won a special jury award for his performance in Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol, Janatha Garage and Pulimurugan. Though Mohanlal is unarguably one of the best actors the country has ever produced there remains a question over the quality of movies that he was awarded for.
Akshay Kumar winning the best actor award was a real shocker and people all over the country took to social medias to we express their displeasure at the jury’s choice.
Noted Tamil filmmaker AR Murugadoss, who has also made a mark in Bollywood has accused the jury for being biased with the National awards. His tweet reads,
“#NationalAwards Can clearly witness the influence & partiality of people in jury, it’s biased”
The jury’s decision to snub potential winners such as Aamir Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Manoj Bajpai were questioned by many. Most people felt that Akshay won the award because of his close proximity with Priyadarshan. It must be remembered that the two have worked together on several movies like Hera Pheri, Bhool Bhulaiya and Garam Masala.
