Kangana Ranaut can be trusted to call a spade a spade. The actress slammed award shows in India by blatantly stating that they are rigged. News channel India Today reported the actress describing her own experiences on several award shows during her talk with film critics Rajeev Masand and Anupama Chopra on the Talk 2 show on Saavn. The actress was quoted as suggesting that she once lost out on an award because she was stuck in traffic.
The report quotes Ranaut as saying, "Early on, I got dressed up for some award, I don't remember the award but I was supposed to receive the award for supporting cast for Life In A... Metro (2007). I got stuck in traffic. I started getting calls asking 'where are you?'. The hysteria and panic that I experienced, I didn't make it and Soha (Ali Khan) got it for Rang De Basanti (2006)."
Ranaut is among several actors, including Ajay Devgn and Aamir Khan, who tend to avoid attending award shows. The actress has not attended an awards show since 2014.
She also pulled up the prominent Filmfare awards saying, "I was in the United States for my screenwriting course when I got a call from Filmfare in 2014. They told me I was going to get an award for Krrish 3 (2013) and they requested me to come back for just one day so I could attend the awards. I told them I am doing my course and going back and forth will cost me around 10 lakh. Because I would miss my classes, I told them it's not possible. They decided to give the Best Supporting Actress award to Supriya Pathak for Ram Leela (Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, 2013) instead."
This has certainly not gone down with Filmfare editor, Jitesh Pillai, who took to Twitter to call out the flaws in Ranaut's argument.
'Apparently Kangana Ranaut has given a radio interview where she says I told her she was winning for krrish. Is she hallucinating? I’ve never had a conversation with her about krrish', Pillai wrote in his tweet
The credibility of awards shows have always been in question in India. The recent Zee Cine Awards 2017 came under severe criticism on social media after it gave the Best Film award to Rohit Shetty's Golmaal Again (2017), and Best Actor to Varun Dhawan for Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017).
With Ranaut's statement, a new pandora's box is set to be opened.