The growing crowd speaking up against award functions in the industry just grew by one. Composer Amaal Mallik, who has earned two Filmfare nominations for his work in Kapoor & Sons and Baaghi, has questioned the nature and consistency of these nominations.
In a Facebook post on his personal page, Mallik wrote, "I am nominated for my Albums #KapoorandSons & #Baaghi at the award shows which is an honour because Kapoor and Sons was a beautiful collaborative effort by Me #Badshah, Tanishk Bagchi & Arko Pravo and the result is for all to see !
But if you nominate a #Baaghi that has had average music, only a #SabTera #ChamCham & till a point it was #AgarTuHota that did decent, it's unbelievable because a #BaarBaarDekho & #MSDhoni are bigger albums with 4 successful songs in each."
Here is the complete post.
The composer also questioned a number of other nominations including the absence of Akshay Kumar and Manoj Bajpayee in the Best Actor list for their performances in Airlift (2016) and Aligarh (2016) respectively. The composer wrote, "#MSDhoni makes it to the Oscars and it doesn't even get considered as a best film by the award functions.....
#NeerajPandey not nominated for #MSD, #RajaMenon not nominated for #Airlift, and no #AkshayKumar for Best Actor seriously?
Why don't these honest to script yet commercially successful films and albums make it to the nominations list....."
Taking up the issue, he said, "A nomination is an acknowledgement of Good Work , well that's what I know, but we are disregarding the contribution people have made to the year with their good music and good films, and great performances."
The composer also pointed out that the presence of a jury comprised of people still working in the industry was one reason for this bias. "Why do you have a jury that is still working in the film industry, you need a non-biased jury, not people who are still part of the industry, who end up nominating themselves lol for their own music, their own productions and directorials..." he wrote.
Expressing his fear that this rant might see him barred from award nominations as well, Mallik wrote, "Award Gaya bhaad mein yaar, but atleast nominate people as per their talent and their body of work every year....By not doing so you are making a joke of our film industry and the public backlash is huge, every accolade seems so so unreal and planned, new awards to keep people happy are coming up....
If after this post even if I don't get nominations ever in my life, it is okay, I've always voiced my opinion, and I stand by it !"
Whoa! That escalated quickly, we say.