National Awards are losing their value

National Awards are losing their value
- Planet Bollywood Special Correspondant Let us know what you think about this story

This year National Awards have turned out to br similar to our popular Bollywood awards. The Bollywood awards do not have any respect and value by the film industry and masses. Those awards shows are more of glamour and entertainment based. These shows are for TRP ratings in television and then appreciating the achievers in film industry for that year. I ask one simple question, the film maker is the captain of the ship then why best actors awards are given at last? The best film maker award should be given at last. A Lot of actors during their media interaction have accepted that they do not have respect and value for award shows in Bollywood. The national awards were at least genuine and maintained dignity. Here the awards were for films looked in all languages and of all regions and then decided the winner. But Bollywood seems to have hijacked National awards also.

In past also, when Saif Ali Khan won best actor national award for film 'Hum Tum' was most hilarious news to hear. The movie was fun and Saif Ali Khan was good in the movie but he did not deserve the national award for best actor. The mother Sharmila Tagore was part of the selection committee and son was awarded with a national award. It is almost equal to buying an award. When another Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn won best actor in National Awards twice for films 'Zakham' and 'The Legend of Bhagat Singh' then it very well deserved. Nobody questioned that because Ajay Devgn genuinely deserved awards for those performances. We also had an incident of Raveena Tandon winning best actress for 'Satta' in National Awards had also raised lot of eyebrows because her uncle Mac Mohan was in the committee.

This year national awards looks like a Bollywood awards. May be Bollywood made better films last year compared to all regional cinema makers. The committee for national awards should be fair to all regional film makers. They may not have a budget of Bollywood but they could tell better stories. The performances could be far better. Sanjay Leela Bhansali 'Bajirao Mastani' was a great film but I have seen better films made last year in bollywood itself. 'Masaan', "Manjhi' and 'Badalapur' are some great examples of those movies.

The Malayalam film 'Premam' was bumper blockbuster in South India last year. It had excellent story and screenplay. It was better deserving film to win an award. We can always have a debate on this topic of better film. Each of us has a different choice. The national awards should be left alone and we need to bring respected and well deserved personalities to the selection committee for national awards. They should not all belong to Bollywood and we should have representative from all regions. They should basically love cinema.

There was a lot of criticism for national awards this year in social media and many feel it was biased towards Hindi films. 'Bahubali' was an excellent film and technology was used very well. It deserved technical awards but it did not really merit a best film award. It may have been a blockbuster at the box office and shattered all records but the best film should have an excellent story and a compelling screenplay. It should have clinical performances from actors. The Indian film industry should make sure that national awards do not go the popular Bollywood awards path. They need to maintain their dignity and respect. The film industry should value them.