Is Bollywood losing faith in award ceremonies?

MUMBAI - The number of award ceremonies is growing in Bollywood, but many stars seem to be disillusioned with them. Aamir Khan was the first to boycott them, now Ajay Devgn has joined him, and others too feel there is no space for genuine talent at such events meant to garner publicity.

“I don’t see any value in any of these award ceremonies I see around me nowadays. The ones I don’t have value from my heart for, I don’t go there,” says Aamir.

However, he does value some.

“I have been to a couple of them. I went to the Kolhapuri Award, which was in Chennai. It’s a very small awards ceremony, they give just one award in the whole evening and it’s only for a first-time filmmaker. I have also been to collect an award that I got from the Deenanath Mangeshkar trust. These are two awards that I had value in my heart for, so I was happy to be selected for them,” Aamir told IANS in an interview.

Some of the well-known awards in the Hindi movie industry are Filmfare Awards, Apsara Awards, Star Screen Awards, Zee Cine Awards and International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards.

Ajay says such ceremonies keep cropping up every year as organisers try to primarily market themselves through awards and celebs.

“I don’t attend award ceremonies. They give awards to those who attend the function. So they keep their options open. If all attend the ceremony then the award gets divided into three categories,” Devgn told IANS. “They also have to market it; they also have to sell their awards.”

This year the National Award winning actor was nominated for four awards - Big Star Entertainment Award, Star Screen Awards, Apsara Awards and Zee Cine Awards - in the best actor category for his performance in the crime thriller “Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai”. But he didn’t attend either of them; neither did he receive any.

Emraan Hashmi echoes the same sentiment and maintains that these ceremonies try to keep everyone happy.

“If you see any award ceremony, they are pleasing everyone. There are three categories for every actor…it’s ridiculous; and three awards given to music. I really don’t want to be part of the circus. The whole industry goes and claps for it, but I don’t want to be part of it,” said Emraan.

Award ceremonies don’t excite actress Kareena Kapoor either, because she feels most awards go to undeserving candidates.

“Those who don’t attend - their names are never declared in award ceremonies. Those who don’t deserve get the awards and those who deserve land up enjoying pizzas at home.”

Suniel Shetty said: “I don’t think that all the awards in a ceremony are rigged, but sometimes it happens that awards are given to please them (celebs), under pressure. I don’t attend ceremonies because I am occupied with prior commitments.”

At a recent award ceremony, Bollywood’s dream girl Hema Malini was honoured with the lifetime achievement honour and in her acceptance speech she revealed that during her prime she received only one trophy. Veteran director Ramesh Sippy, who gave away the award and is known for the cult film “Sholay”, said he wasn’t lucky enough to get even that one award.

However, Priyanka Chopra still has faith in honours and wants to believe none of them is rigged.

“I don’t think so and really want to believe they are not (rigged) because we work very hard and every actor in the film fraternity, every technician in the film fraternity and every one who makes, who toils, who works really hard to make a film happen would like to believe that just because you know someone, you are related to someone, you will win an award. I don’t believe it.

“Out of personal experience I would love to believe that every award I have won has been out of voting because I deserved it,” said Priyanka.

(Dibyojyoti Baksi can be contacted at dibyojyoti.b@ians.in)