Outrage over National Awards 2018 is justified: President’s absence cheated artistes of earned honour

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65th National Awards 2010
New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind confers Dadasaheb Phalke Award on veteran actor Vinod Khanna (posthumously), being received by his son Akshay Khanna and wife Kavita Khanna, during the 65th National Film Awards function at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Thursday. Union I&B Minister Smriti Irani and MoS for I & B Rajyavardhan Rathore are also seen. PTI Photo by Manvender Vashist (PTI5_3_2018_000140B) *** Local Caption ***

Vigyan Bhavan, the venue for the National Film Awards ceremony held on 3 May, wore a forlorn look. About 60 awardees, almost half the winners, chose to skip India’s most prestigious film award. The auditorium was filled with empty chairs and face down nameplates of those who boycotted the ceremony.

After a (mostly) controversy-free announcement of the awards last month, Thursday’s ceremony was expected to be uneventful. It would have been, except the powers-that-be decided to step away from established practice.

During the dress rehearsal on Wednesday the recipients were told that President Ram Nath Kovind would only present 11 of the 137 awards. While the remaining would be given away by Information and Broadcasting Minister, Smriti Irani and Minister of State, Rajyavardhan Rathore.

Also read: National Film Awards 2018: 60 recipients giving ceremony a miss is not a boycott, but a dismissal of rudeness

Understandably, filmmakers and artists from across the country are incensed. The honour of the award lies in the fact that it’s presented by the first citizen of India. The invitation to the ceremony and even the advertisement in yesterday’s newspapers mention this. While these are government awards, the fact that they are presented by the president is what makes them unbiased and pristine. This has been the tradition since the awards were established in 1954.

The only other occasion when the President didn’t present the awards was during Pratibha Patil’s tenure. Vice President Hamid Ansari stepped in because President Patil was unwell.

While the attendees were informed of the change in the ceremony only the day before, Ashok Malik, press secretary to the president, said the ministry was informed of the president’s new protocol in advance. “President attends all awards functions and convocations for a maximum of one hour. This has been the protocol since he took office. It was conveyed to the Information and Broadcasting ministry several weeks ago, and the ministry knew this all along. Rashtrapati Bhavan is surprised by the 11th hour questions that have been raised,” Malik clarified.

Yesterday’s ceremony was conducted in two phases. The first phase, a rushed ceremony without welcome speeches, had the ministers give out awards. Names of more than 30 protesting artists including Malayalam Actor Fahad Faasil, who won Best Supporting Award for the film Thondimuthalum Driksaksiyum and Malayalam Actress Parvarthy, who won Special Mention for her film, Take Off, weren’t even announced.

The second phase of the ceremony, when President Kovind presented 11 awards, was conducted with the traditional pomp and splendor associated with the event.

There is also a question mark on how and who picked the 11-awards that President Kovind presented. In the music category, he gave away the award for Best Playback Singer (Male) to KJ Yesudas but Shashaa Tripupati, who was judged the Best Playback Singer (Female) was awarded by the two ministers. Among the 11-awards the President gave away were also the two posthumous awards to Sridevi and Vinod Khanna that were collected by their respective families and Best Music Direction to AR Rahman.

The National Awards are the only film awards in the country that bring artists from every corner of the country under one umbrella. Even though we have many film industries, the National Awards are supposed to not discriminate regardless of language, cast, budget or popularity. By picking the ‘special 11’, the I&B Ministry signaled that there is a hierarchy between the winners, which is unfortunate. The involvement of ministers, instead of the president, also gives the event an unwelcome political colour.

While talking about the boycotting artists, Censor Board chief Prasoon Joshi told IANS, “Getting an award from the President of the country is a special moment. But at the same time, these changes keep happening. I don’t think we should belittle the awards.”

Unfortunately, Joshi, Irani and the I&B Ministry are turning a blind eye towards how they have belittled the sanctity of India’s most prestigious film awards.

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