UNFAIR AWARDS 2002. Review on Filmfare Awards 2002

The occasion - Filmfare awards 1998 ceremony. The presenter announces the name of the Best Supporting Actor – “And the award goes to Salman Khan for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”. Everyone was dumbstruck. There was a pin-drop silence followed by shouts of “boo”. The facial expressions of Salman said it all. He did not deserve the award, which he admitted while making the acceptance speech. One more fantastic actor, Manoj Bapai (Satya), was denied the award. So folks, this is the scenario that is being repeated for many years now. The filmfare awards are seldom given to deserving actors. It’s the Star that prevails over Actor when it comes to the popular awards. Good actors don’t stand a chance against the stars. small Stars do not stand a chance against BIG stars. And the filmfare awards of 2002 were no different.

Karan Singh has already given an excellent review of the Filmfare awards 2002 event on MS. I could not have written better than that. Therefore I will restrict my review to the anomalies in the Filmfare award 2002 and the Filmfare award system.

The Filmfare awards, today, are nothing but a joke. The anomalies and inconsistencies are so much in the nominations (and the final winners) that all the credibility for the awards has been lost. Now awards are all about manipulation. One cannot believe that the awards are actually the choice of general public. Audience cannot be so dumb. Moreover the nominations defy all logic. Lets have a look at some of the nominations of Filmfare 2002 that were hilarious and illogical.

Ajay Devgan was not nominated for TLOBS in spite of giving a fantastic performance but Bobby Deol was nominated for Humraaz! Surprised? Read on for more such surprises.

Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt had equal footage in Kaante but they got nomination in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor category respectively! Same was the case with Ajay Devgan and Vivek Oberoi in Company.

Paresh Rawal was nominated in Best Comedian category ignoring the fact that he was actually a supporting actor in Aankhein and not a comedian.

Amitabh was a villain in Aankhein but he was nominated in the “ Best Supporting Actor” category!

Amitabh was nominated in Best Supporting Actor category for Aankhein. Does this mean that Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, and Arjun Ramphal were the main actors in the film and Amitabh Bachchan was supporting them? Needless to say, it was Amitabh who was the main protagonist in the film and has used the other actors (their characters, actually) as a puppet in his hands. And if Amitabh was a supporting actor (supporting Paresh Rawal & co.) then why wasn’t Paresh Rawal nominated in the Best Actor category instead of Best Actor in a comic role for Aankhein. Confused? Even I am.

Madhuri was nominated in “Best Supporting Actress” Category instead of “Best Actress” category. Is it because she “supported” SRK in Devdas after Aishwarya had married the other guy? Was this logic applied? Needless to say Madhuri deserved to win the Best Actress award. (I could not believe that Amisha Patel figured in the Best Actress category).

It is said that these popular awards are based on popularity i.e. the box-office collections. If this is the criterion, then why did the award for Best Supporting Actor go to Vivek Oberoi for Company and not Amitabh or Jackie Shroff? Weren’t Kaante and Devdas bigger hits than Company? Why were there nominations for films like Filhaal, Shakti-the power, etc, which were flop films, if the criterion is box-office collections? Why was Ismail Darbar not given award for Devdas instead of AR Rahman, as Devdas was a bigger hit than Saathiya? What were Amisha Patel (Humraaz) and Karisma Kappoor (Shakti – the power) doing in the Best Actress category as those films were disasters at Box Office. If the box-office performance was ignored in this case then why wasn’t Nandita Das nominated for her brilliant performance (compared to Amisha & Karisma) in Pitaah – a flop film. Therefore all these talk of popular awards being based on box-office collections and are public choices does not hold any water.

If some big star could not be given any popular award then they pacify him by giving him a critics award as was evident when Ajay Devgan and Rani Mukherjee were given awards for TLOBS and Saathiya respectively. Any connoisseur of good acting will say that Ajay Devgan’s performance was far better and more popular than SRK’s portrayal of Devdas. Similarly if a good performance is the criteria then which fool will ignore Rani Mukheree’s excellent act in Saathiya and opt for Aishwarya Rai who had simply overacted in Devdas. Mind you both the films, Saathiya and Devdas were hits. But then Aishwaraya Rai is a bigger star than Rani Mukherjee. Aishwarya Rai would not have attended the function if she were not sure of getting the award. My point is - If the organizers and sponsors need a star to grace the function and/or give a dance performance, pay them in cash. Don’t pay them with an award that they don’t deserve. As simple as that. What took the cake is Best female debut award, which was given to Esha Deol – a star kid, who had given three super flops in 2002. Can anyone please tell me what “Best” was there in her debut. Come on now, why would they give an unknown actress like Malini Sharma (Raaz) the best debut award. She is not a star kid, damn it. Esha Deol performed at the function simply as a kickback for the best debut award. Moreover giving the award to Esha Deol ensured that her Star parents and brothers would grace the occasion. And yeah, Shilpa Shetty was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category simply to ensure that she attended the function so that the function is not devoid of any glamour. If “pacifying” factor is applied to the award winners to satisfy their ego, the “accommodating” factor is applied while nominating the stars in different categories. For instance, if Amitabh cannot find himself in Best Villain category then he is accommodated in Best Supporting Actor category. If Paresh cannot find a place in the Best Supporting Actor category he is shifted to the Best Comedian category. And so on. Year after year, poor Govinda find himself nominated in “Best actor in a comic role”category because he could not be accommodated in the Best Actor category. Does the jury members and the voters think that Govinda deserves to be in the above category just because he acts in comedy films?

Therefore the moot point is not only about the bias in giving the awards but also of the manipulation of the criterion, which varies from star to star, film to film.

Due to these manipulations and biased attitude of the judges a lot of sensible actors like Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgan, etc, stay away from such awards. No one doubts their acting capabilities and they do not need an award to prove it. Needless to say, Filmfare awards have lost all the credibility and the award function is nothing but an evening of fun, glamour and Public relations. Whoever lobbies hard or makes favours are given the awards. This is a fact whether people agree or not.

AMJAD K. MARUF