People who criticize the National awards would not even have seen those movies which won the awards: Priyadarshan

The National film awards jury headed by director Priyadarshan has been getting a lot of flak from all corners for some of their choices. Akshay Kumar winning the National award for best actor took many by surprise. Most people alleged that Akshay Kumar’s proximity with director Priyadarshan helped him in bagging the prestigious award.

Filmmakers like Hansal Mehta, AR Murugadoss and many others have questioned the jury’s choices and alleged nepotism. Jury chairperson Priyadarshan in a recent interview said that people who allege that the jury was biased would not have even seen those movies that won the awards.

Priyadarshan is quoted saying, “One thing I noticed was that people who are criticising the awards have never seen the films that won the awards. Regional films sweeped the awards and Marathi and Bengali cinema dominated. Director AR Murugadoss commented that the jury was biased and I don’t think he has seen any film that had won an award. How can he make such a comment without viewing these movies?”

The jury’s decision to snub some marvellous performances by actors like Manoj Bajpai (Aligarh), Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Raman Raghav 2.0) and Aamir Khan (Dangal) were questioned by many. When quizzed about why Aamir Khan was not considered, Priyadarshan gave a bizarre justification. He said that Aamir wouldn’t personally accept the award so why spoil it for some other actor who stood as good a chance of winning the award.

The veteran filmmaker also asked why people didn’t question about Amitabh Bachchan winning the National award when Ramesh Sippy was the jury chairman. Priyadarshan clarified that the jury’s decision was collective and not the chairman’s decision alone.