Over the years, the credibility of Indian film awards has been widely questioned over not getting the winners right. Need I remind you Golmaal Again was recently declared Best Picture. Time and again, these ceremonies have constantly been blamed for being out of touch with what actually constitutes remarkable and artistic cinema. Is it that difficult to differentiate between what’s innovative and stale? Well, looking across the Filmfare nominations for its upcoming 63rd edition, it sure seems so.
On Thursday, when the entire nation was overwrought over the fate of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, India’s “prestigious” award show decided to release its nominations list. While the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Deepika Padukone-starrer brought a much-needed win for the film industry, Filmfare’s nominations only made this victory tasteless after so many deserving actors, directors and movies were shut out of the race.
Rajkummar Rao, who literally became the face of Indian cinema in 2017 and did some four films, was left high and dry as his portrayal of a honest rookie government clerk in Newton failed to crack the list of best actors despite widespread acclaim. (He did land a nomination for Bareilly Ki Barfi as best supporting actor.) What’s most surprising was Varun Dhawan’s nomination for Badrinath Ki Dulhania, which was accused of being a creepy misogynistic romance drama. Filmfare seriously?
Though Newton received a decent number of nominations—for Pankaj Tripathi’s supporting role, for Mayank Tewari and Amit V Masurkar’s screenplay, for original story, dialogues, cinematography and editing—one of the year’s best films was unable to score a best director nod for Amit V Masurkar and, more disappointing, best picture given that it was India's official entry to the Oscars. Yes, you all are free to scratch your heads and wonder how a film with some of the finest talent in the country didn’t make it to the list of the best pictures of Filmfare.
Konkona Sen Sharma’s unconventional turn as a muslim saleswoman in Lipstick Under My Burkha was passed over while Alia Bhatt received a best actress nomination for playing a regular character in Badrinath Ki Dulhania. Perhaps the biggest shock would be, Alankrita Shrivastava’s Lipstick... only managed to earn one nomination for Ratna Pathak Shah in a supporting role category. Kriti Sanon, who shed her glamorous image to play a bubbly yet loveable UP girl in Bareilly Ki Barfi, was praised by critics and audiences for her performance but failed to land a Filmfare acknowledgment.
Well it’s not the first time the Indian awards have come under the radar for being pointless, several Bollywood celebs have previously gone on record to say that they don’t believe in these star-studded events. I remember interviewing Nawazuddin Siddiqui, during which he bluntly told me, “Ye awards sab fake hote hai. They don’t matter to me.” Recently, actor Kangana Ranaut during her podcast with Anupama Chopra and Rajeev Masand revealed an incident where she was asked to perform at an award ceremony and promised a trophy for the same.
One of the biggest reasons the general audience remain unaware of the experimental cinema which is made in the country is because these shows are always busy satisfying A-listers and movies that are commercially successful. But wouldn’t it be delightful to give recognition to the real talent and art, not the ones who desperately want it just to keep the audiences in a false belief that they are still loved by everyone?”
Sad, we have enough talent but no platform that knows their worth.
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