Akshay Kumar has finally opened up about the controversy over his National Award win. The controversy stems from the fact that director Priyadarshan, a close associate of Akshay, was the Chairperson of the committee that chose him for the honour.
In an interview to Mumbai Mirror, the actor said, “I have completed 25 years in the film industry and I’ve never called in a favour to bag a movie or an award. As for Priyan favouring me, I think he has answered that question in your newspaper.”
There has been a lot of talk about Akshay’s National Award for Best Actor. He won the prize for his role as Rustom Pavri, in the film Rustom, based on true incidents. Many feel that Akshay’s performance in the film was unworthy of a national award, with some alleging that the jury was biased.
However, Akshay doesn’t seem to care. He said, “I’m very happy. I consider it the blessings of my parents and the good wishes of my family. Mrs Funnybones who always teased me on not getting any awards is happy and my happiness lies in making her happy.”
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Meanwhile, Priyadarshan, who headed the National Award jury for fiction, had earlier stated, “Akshay Kumar deserved the award and 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?”