Twist in the tale! Akshay won National Award for Rustom and Airlift, says Priyadarshan

Akshay Kumar is on cloud nine currently after winning the National Award for Best Actor for his film Rustom (2016). The news of his achievement spread like fire on social media and the actor’s huge fan following is unable to stop gushing over it. 

However, his selection for the said award has also come as a disappointment to a section of the audience. In fact, there are people who seem quite shocked by the decision of the National Awards jury. 

64th National Awards: Akshay Kumar, Neerja, Ventilator win big

Now, there is a twist in the tale. Filmmaker Priyadarshan, who is the head of the National Awards jury, has now clarified that the actor has received the award for his performances in Rustom, as well as Airlift. 

Speaking to a portal, he said, “Akshay has won the Best Actor award for both Airlift and Rustom. For technical reasons only Rustom is mentioned in the list of awardees. He has given contrasting and extremely sensitive performances in both Airlift and Rustom, and we thought it was only fair to honour him for both.”

His statement has come as a shock because even though an actor has won an award for two films a couple of times in the past, the announcement about Airlift came after a few hours of the initial declaration that Akshay had won the award only for Rustom. 

This obviously seems a little odd. 

It is being speculated that the National Awards jury came up with the clarification (of giving him an award for Airlift too) after facing severe backlash over their decision of honouring Akshay. 

Meanwhile, those on social media had a field day making jokes about Akshay's selection for the National Award.

Here are some of them: