The Filmfare Awards effectively redeemed itself on Saturday by naming Aamir Khan, 51, Best Actor for his remarkable performance in Dangal. Decades ago, Aamir swore off award shows after he lost the Filmfare Best Actor prize to Shah Rukh Khan – in 1996, SRK was awarded for playing Raj in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge over Aamir as Munna in Rangeela. Many,
foremost among them Aamir, considered that the Rangeela performance was superior to the DDLJ one and the credibility of Indian award shows was forever dented.
This changed on Saturday, when Aamir and Alia Bhatt won the two top acting honours, for Dangal and Udta Punjab. Aamir doesn’t attend award shows but Alia, who is all of 23, does and happily posed with her trophy.
Alia’s performance as the abused and unnamed Bihari migrant in drug drama Udta Punjab has been sweeping award shows. The actress spent all of Sunday responding to congratulatory messages on Twitter, like these:
Last week, when the nominations for the Filmfare Awards were announced, Twitter was enraged by the omission of Akshay Kumar in the Best Actor category, which included a nod for Salman Khan’s role in Sultan. Also criticized was the overlooking of Dangal’s female cast – actresses Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra and Sakshi Tanwar.
In its winners’ list, however, Filmfare somewhat mended its reputation by awarding Sultan just once for the song Jag Ghoomeya and for heaping prizes on Dangal, Kapoor And Sons, Udta Punjab and Neerja.
The Filmfare Awards for 2017 were held in Mumbai last Saturday, and co-hosted by Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar.
