That Bollywood awards are a sham is common knowledge. More than a few members of the ‘Bollywood fraternity’ have openly discussed how it’s a con featuring the laugh-out-loud categories. Hell, Rishi Kapoor has even admitted to buying an award in his autobiography. The credibility of Hindi film awards is non-existent… just like logic in a Housefull film. And yet, the institution of Hindi film awards has managed to stoop even lower, after the paparazzi caught Alia Bhatt leaving the award’s venue as the ‘Best Actress’ even before the ceremony began. The Star Screen Awards 2019 adjudged Bhatt as the Best Actress for her role in Gully Boy.
A tweet is doing the rounds that sees Bhatt exiting the awards venue from the back entrance, her manager’s voice in the background requests the photographers to not put up the picture immediately. Bhatt’s manager then asks them to put up the picture only after 7pm, to which the photographers agree and say that they will be sharing the photos only after 8pm. Bhatt is posing with her Best Actress statue, completely unaware that someone is recording the whole thing on video.
Twitterati is having a ball going after the already absent integrity of Hindi film awards.
Here is Alia Bhatt walking away with her Best Actress Award (backdoor exit) before the actual show began.
Alia’s Manager: Abhi nahi Daaloge na? (Photos)
Papz: Nahi ek ghante baad
Alia’s M: Nahi 7 baje ke baad
Papz: Okay 8 baje ke baad #AwardFixing #OnlyInBollywood #Exposed pic.twitter.com/rYzNdgvaXy— Fashionista PC (@fashionistapc) December 8, 2019
There was a time when the Hindi film awards had genuine gravitas, featured funny monologues by the hosts, and actually counted for celebrating excellence. It’s been more than a decade since the award ceremonies lost their reputation forever, and have been relegated to a mere TV programme. In the words of Saif Ali Khan, these award shows are nothing more than a ‘con job’ where the telecast is meddled with, to cut a bloated 8-hour ceremony into a 3-hour TV show. The jokes aren’t funny. The merit of the winners is questionable at best.
And yet, none of the actors will stop flaunting it on their social media. When these same actors will be asked about the integrity of these awards, they will laugh at it. It’s a vicious circle of money and recognition, that won’t stop until one of the parties puts their foot down. These actors will have to stop pretending like this means anything, and this actually translates as recognition from the contemporaries. Until then, we can keep laughing at Bollywood awards, and its mind-bending inventions to ensure attendance from the biggest stars.
