It is no longer a secret that Indian award shows… suck. Big time!
Idiotic nominations, unfair and paid award winners, unnecessary drama and more have only worked to downgrade the overall quality of these award shows. More and more people these days are waking up to how nonsensical these shows can get and actually calling them out on their unfair practices.
The latest to join in this is singer Neha Bhasin who recently posted some scathing tweets exposing the reality of award shows in India including the recently held Filmfare.
In a series of tweets she talked about how she’s always been treated badly by these award shows and how they choose to give more importance to the A-list celebrities.
Neha Bhasin Exposes Filmfare
On February 17th, Neha Bhasin, whose sung popular songs like Kuchh Khaas (Fashion), Swag Se Swagat (Tiger Zinda Hai), Kaala Doreya (Kaalakandi), Jag Ghoomeya (Sultan) posted about her own personal experience with Filmfare.
Her whole letter read as:
“Yes I have won 2 Filmfare awards and multiple nominations. They brought my family, friends, and fans immense joy. They brought me a sense of inclusion too. But the demarcation of who is who has always been prevalent in all award functions starting from the red carpet media, to seating (people stand in ailes forcing smiles while managers/assistants hustle for better seat, its a joke), to a few times the host forgot to even mention my nomination in 2012, to being stuffed in embarrassing back rows, to no mention you even attended often unless your PR hustles you a big designer n tipped a few photographers.
Each of us worked hard through the years right? We love what we do right? Awards should be a celebration of that right? Irrespective of who wins that night. But then yet why do we always feel reduced? I have felt this for years and experienced massive anxiety before most such events.
But not anymore. As I want to rise above the triviality and focus on what gives me joy and this does not.
It was my mother’s wish to attend a filmfare with me and I made her wish come true this year but waiting for 10 minutes and my manager putting foot down for a sedar (which was clearly told to the filmfare people multiple times as my mum has knee issues) I finally got a A3. So when I walked out an Innova was called for me.
When an actor walked out some SUV and the mercs were lined up for I guess the more imp actors (puts caste system to shame). I drive an E class. I live in a sea-facing apartment in a prime location in Mumbai. I book my suites even on vacations. My worth is my decision. Not yours. Thank you.
At this age and stage of my life, I don’t want to scavenge for what I consider basics. When we invite guests in our house, don’t we give them the best even if we are inconvenienced?
Don’t these awards make enough money to treat everyone well? New actors are spoiled and given privileges on a platter while seasoned singers, writers, music directors are constantly reduced. Why? Hence I hold my ground. I will be where I am wanted.”
https://twitter.com/nehabhasin4u/status/1229297823687962624
https://twitter.com/nehabhasin4u/status/1229297960069894144
https://twitter.com/nehabhasin4u/status/1229299349122740225
https://twitter.com/nehabhasin4u/status/1229412047680462848
She reportedly posted this whole thing as an extension to some of her earlier tweets where she was agreeing with Kesari’s Teri Mitti lyricist Manoj Muntashir who posted his own note about how he was officially boycotting the Filmfare awards.
https://twitter.com/nehabhasin4u/status/1229058588955402242
https://twitter.com/nehabhasin4u/status/1229059209280413696
https://twitter.com/nehabhasin4u/status/1229060725638742017
In several of her tweets she mentioned how artists like her who were not that well known or big were mistreated at these award shows. In one post she mentioned how she had to struggle to get an extra ticket to the ticket for her makeup artist while star kid, Ananya Panday, who is not even an year old into the industry had a big team with her.
This is not a dig against Panday herself, but just an example of the biased treatment such shows give to A-list celebrities and other non-actor celebrities.
https://twitter.com/nehabhasin4u/status/1229062151660167170
https://twitter.com/nehabhasin4u/status/1229064335256764419
https://twitter.com/nehabhasin4u/status/1229096408847765504
In this tweet she even mentioned that the south Filmfare awards didn’t even have the courtesy to inform her of her nominations. Instead, it would be her fans who would tell her about it.
Read More: I Stopped Watching Filmfare And Other Sucky Indian Award Shows Long Back
Boycott Filmfare
Filmfare has been getting massive criticism for several days now especially after people learned that Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt starrer movie ‘Gully Boy’ had won 13 awards.
With this, Zoya Akhtar directed film has even surpassed Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s movie ‘Black’ to have received the most number of Filmfare awards.
This along with the fact that Ananya Panday won the award for the Best Debut for her role in Student Of The Year 2 just increased people’s ire against the award show.
People commented on how Hindi film industry had some very promising debuts with movies like The Notebook and Soni, the latter of which wasn’t even nominated at all.
Eventually, #boycottFilmfare started to trend on Twitter, lasting all off Sunday night and even going till Monday morning. Netizens slammed the award show for their biased results and criticised them for sidelining much better movies like Article 15, Sonchiriya,
Frankly, this is not a new talking point at all. Every year the topic of Indian award shows being biased and unfair seems to come up. The real disappointment is that, even after repeated calling out of such awards, no steps are taken to make the process more fair and equal.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: New Indian Express, Twitter
Find the blogger @chirali_08
