Ever since the announcement of Akshay Kumar bagging the Best Actor National Award for Rustom has taken place, several questions were raised about the credibility of the awards and their jury. Many people from the industry and outside the industry felt that the other contenders were more deserving than Akshay.
Priyadarshan, the chairperson of National Awards, clarified in a statement, “Akshay was given the best actor on the basis of his performance in two films — ‘Airlift’ and ‘Rustom‘. It was the jury’s decision. One performance was dramatic and one was realistic. But according to the rule book, only one film can be mentioned and ‘Rustom’ was mentioned in the list. But the award recognises his performance in both the movies.”
While interacting with a leading daily Akshay shared his thoughts on winning the national award and said, “Itna keh sakta hun mai ki ye award bhi maine imaandari se jita hai. Maine aaj tak cheating nahi ki. Neither have I ever made a call to anyone to win an award nor have given money or done favours for it.”
On the work front, Akshay Kumar is currently shooting for Pad Man along with Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte.
The film is based on the life of social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham, who made low-cost sanitary pad making machine and innovated grass-roots mechanisms for generating awareness about traditional unhygienic practices around menstruation in rural India. Pad Man is directed by R. Balki, who previously helmed movies like Cheeni Kum, Paa, Shamitabh and Ki And Ka. The film is produced by Akshay Kumar’s wife Twinkle Khanna under her banner ‘Mrs Funnybones Movies’.
Akshay will be next seen in Toilet – Ek Prem Katha opposite Bhumi Pednekar which will release on 11th August. The movie will clash with Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma starrer Imtiaz Ali’s untitled next.