IIFA a paid holiday: Pahlaj Nihalani slams awards for ignoring Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar

Central Board Of Film Certification chairman Pahlaj Nihalani has strongly criticised the annual IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) Awards for not nominating Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar and their much-acclaimed films Dangal and Rustom, respectively, in New York. The three-day extravaganza took place in New York from 14 to 16 July.

In a scathing attack on the organisers, the CBFC chief has called the event an expensive paid holiday.

“Look at the hypocrisy. They haven’t even nominated Aamir Khan for Dangal and Akshay Kumar for Airlift and Rustom just because they wouldn’t attend their weekend holiday plans masquerading as an awards function,” Nihalani told Hindustan Times newspaper.

The CBFC also pointed out that the IIFA Awards had lost its relevance after Amitabh Bachchan opted out of it in 2011. The function was then held in Sri Lanka, which Bachchan skipped again. Bachchan reportedly did not want to hurt the Tamil sentiments following the human right violations allegations against the Sri Lankan armed forced when they wiped out the terror outfit LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).

“I think the day Mr Bachchan opted out, IIFA lost its dignity and relevance. In 18 years, how much global impact has Indian cinema made and what hand did IIFA have in this?” Nihalani questioned.

While Nihalani has the right to his point of view, it is said that as per the IIFA procedure, every production house has to fill their nomination form to make its film eligible for the awards. While Khan is known for snubbing most popular awards, it’s not known whether Rustom makers, too, didn’t file their nominations.

Khan's Dangal had swept the popular awards at Filmfare, while Akshay had bagged the National Award for Best Actor for Rustom.