Wednesday Jan 16 6:05 PM
Bollywood Trade News Network
Summer hit HEYY BABYY director Sajid Khan spoke to BBC Asian Network's 'Love Bollywood' show about last weeks 14th Star Screen Awards and had some controversial comments on some of the winners.Sajid Khan, who also hosted the awards ceremony, expressed his disappointment at losing out to Aamir Khan's TAARE ZAMEEN PAR when he spoke to 'Love Bollywood' presenters Raj and Pablo. Aamir Khan's directing debut TZP was nominated for 17 Star Screen Awards and won 7, including Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Story.
Sajid said of directing rival Aamir,
"Aamir is a very good friend of mine. He is a star par excellence but when he gives a statement out in the press that he is not interested in awards, then I think the awards also should show no interest in him... You are giving out all the awards to TAARE ZAMEEN PAR, which, again see the point is, it deserves and I'm not saying it doesn't deserve... It's a fantastic film, but you know that there is going to be no-one coming to take it."
Sajid drew on a comparison from Hollywood too. Marlon Brando said he didn't accept his Academy Award for THE GODFATHER and the Academy didn't ever nominate him again. He suggested that Indian Awards juries should consider the same course of action to directors who snub the awards honours.
He also questioned the concept of a Best Director award going to two directors jointly - it was shared by Shimit Amin for CHAK DE INDIA and Aamir Khan for TZP.
"Have you ever heard of a best director award going to two directors?!"
The outspoken film maker showed his concern for the Bollywood industry as a whole, highlighting the fact that only 3 actresses were nominated for the Best Actress Award, against 5 leading men in the Best Actor category.
"For the best actress category you had just three names Aishwarya Rai, Tabu and Kareena Kapoor. Rightly deserving because all three of them are fantastic and all three of them were very good in GURU, CHEENI KUM and JAB WE MET. But you can't ignore a Katrina Kaif for a NAMASTE LONDON or a Vidya Balan for a BHOOL BHULAIYAA. I was donning two roles that day. One was the role of an entertainer of a host like Billy Crystal, and that was one role in which I was doing my job professionally. The other role was that of a very concerned film industry member and a director who has made a blockbuster film in his first film."
