The 65th National Film Awards were held yesterday on Thursday, however, according to sources over 50 of the winners decided to skip the event.

The reason for doing so was that on the rehearsal day it was found out that only a handful of the winners would be receiving the award from the President Ram Nath Kovind, while the rest would be felicitated by the Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani.

A total of only 11 winners out of 131 actually received their awards from the President’s hand that included Vinod Khanna and Sridevi, both posthumously. Khanna was awarded the Dada Saheb Phalke Award and Sridevi was given it for her film ‘Mom’. Both these awards were accepted by their family members.

National Awards Boycott
Sridevi’s family receiving the award from the President

This selective way of giving awards, and further breaking away from the 65-year tradition of National Film Awards, clearly angered and hurt many of the industry people who were hoping to receive such an honour from the hands of the President himself.

A. R. Rahman getting his award from the President

Although as per sources, officials from the Rashtrapati Bhavan did say that going by protocol the President is not supposed to spend over an hour at an award function and that this had been informed to the ministry almost 3 weeks ago.

One of those upset by this was Resul Pookutty, an Oscar-winning sound designer and editor, who first tweeted out his feelings by saying that:

Resul Pookutty getting the Padma Shri Award in 2010 by former President Pratibha Patel

Afterward, Pookutty also wrote a strong Facebook post (reproduced here in):

‘This is the sentiments of an ordinary technician working in the Indian Film Industry. The Hon.President mentioned in His speech at the National Award Ceremony that “it is indeed a special moment for each of the 125 Award winners”!

I do not know if it was special for all of them but I’m sure it was special for some of them! Hon.President also mentioned that there are 200,000/ people directly and many more indirectly working in the film industry. Yes that is true… most of the people who abstained from the ceremony yesterday consists of the majority of that 200,000.

They are the work force… they work behind the camera, they carry heavy lights, they carry heavy equipments, they swing booms, they push trolleys, they work more than 18houres a day!. It is their sweat that earns every state Govt it’s Entertainment Tax- UP charges the highest 60% in addition to the GST @18%, though we are strictly not a service Industry. So in effect we became the highest taxed Industry!

When your good office had given time to hand over the National Award to only 11 members out of the 125, it is those smallest people in the whole spectrum got sidelined! Their aspirations and ambition got crushed! Hon.President mentioned in the speech India based Films been successful so foreign studios are coming in, we must encourage every opportunity to celebrate our values. But the real people who took India’s name in the International map of world cinema are those technical force. Starting with V.Santharam who got recognized for Best Sound at Cannes in the early 50’s, or Bhanu Athaiya who brought the first competitive Oscar to India or Santhosh Sivan who got recognized by the American Society Of Cinematographers or Resul Pookutty who got Asia’s first technical Oscar for Sound and many more such exemplary examples exist in our filmic conscience.

When your good office chose the last 11 from the list of 125, it is these extraordinary small people who got left out in their national recognition. We learned from the news that the President’s office was too busy and couldn’t have allowed more than one hour. We could have been called back on another day!

We would have come back with our own expenditure, in trains or buses, would have stayed in the cheapest lodges to avoid extra burden of repeat call for @MIB, after all we are used to traveling in trains and buses when our stars travel by first class flights, to save production’s money.

We wouldn’t have felt bad. We felt bad because when Your good office chose from the bottom of the list it was only the stars and star elements got picked up!

Or those 11 people could have been the young and first time awardees! We would have clapped in joy at Your choice… We felt bad because the people who got left out were those raw people, the technicians who are always called first in every award ceremony and edited out in every TV shows.

Stars don’t care us, business don’t care us, we thought our nation would care us!The National Award is our nation’s highest recognition, being recognized at Hon. President’s hand is our privilege, our honour and our dream!. But I felt the Nation’s sentiment got left out in the choices that were made yesterday, for it’s the technicians who always gets the raw deal!.

I plead your forgiveness, for if I have mentioned anything out of line, after all I’m one of those sentimental ordinary Indian Film Technician!’

Read More: Watch: Famous Indians Who Have Turned Down Prestigious Awards

Other allegedly ‘not so important stars’ receiving it from Union Minister Smriti Irani

It certainly is worth thinking about since unlike the stars or directors even, a large part of the film crew gets little to no recognition for their work.

Also, it is not about getting the award from another minister, but more about the feeling of achievement one gets on receiving an award from the President of the country.

For the professionals, who do not really enjoy the popularity and fans the stars do, this is one of the few times where they feel like their work is acknowledged not only by such respected people but also the people of the country.


Image Credits: Google Images

Sources: The Indian ExpressNDTV, Times of India


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