Priyadarshan who headed the 64th National Award jury finds himself in the midst of controversy over his choice of Akshay Kumar for Best Actor
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 8, 2017)


People are questioning your decision to give the Best Actor award to Akshay Kumar for Rustom when their were worthier contenders like Aamir Khan (Dangal), Amitabh Bachchan (Pink) and Manoj Bajpayee (Aligarh) , with the choices extending if one were to go beyond Bollywood.
Akshay Kumar deserved the award and so we gave it to him. There were a total of 38 jury members with me on this. How can you question the decision of so many people? Ramesh Sippy headed the jury last year. When he gave Best Actor to Amitabh Bachchan for Piku why didn’t anyone question him?

Aamir Khan was applauded for his performance as ex-wrestler Mahavir Phogat in Dangal. He bagged some popular awards too for his act. Don’t you think he was a more deserving contender for this coveted award?
Aamir recently said that he wouldn’t personally accept the award if he is given one. If I remember, Aamir didn’t attend the ceremony when he won the award for Taare Zameen Par (The film bagged the National Film Award for Best Film on Family Welfare in 2008). So, why spoil it for some other actor who stood as good a chance of winning the award.

Reportedly, a few years ago, you had reached out to Aamir with a film on AIDS. He’d liked the subject but things had not worked out and you had taken the offer to Akshay. What’s happening with that project?
(Laughs) Neither Aamir nor Akshay did the film. We made it in Tamil (titled Sila Samayangalil) last year with Prakash Raj.

Buzz is, you are reuniting with Akshay with whom you have made Hera Pheri, Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Garam Masala and Bhagam Bhag in the past, many of them big hits.
No, I am not making any film with Akshay at the moment.

Reports suggest that Akshay bagged the award for his performances in both Airlift and Rustom.
The jury considered him for both films but since the rules specify that he can only win for one film, we decided on Rustom.

Films like Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh haven’t won any award and the hugely successful and acclaimed Dangal has bagged only one award, Best Supporting Actress for Zaira Wasim.
This year regional films, the Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam films in particular, were far better than the ones made in Bollywood. Most of them were not just entertaining potboilers but touched on significant social issues too.

Aligarh touched on the subject of homosexuality sensitively…
Aligarh did not make it to the final list of 89 films, which the jury saw. That list had mostly regional films many of which were really good.

Your appointment as the head of the jury for the 64th National Film Awards was questioned earlier…
Even Satyajit Ray’s appointment was questioned. And if his appointment can be questioned, then so can anyone else’s!