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Recently, the list of National Award winners made way to people questioning the choice of the jury to hand the award to Allu Arjun for Pushpa, ignoring Vicky Kaushal in Sardar Udham. Something of the same sort happened when Shah Rukh Khan was ignored for Swades during the National Award. However, the superstar made sure that he acknowledged this fact on a public forum.
In 2004, Shah Rukh Khan gave two phenomenal films – Veer Zara and Swades. His act was par excellence in both films. He delivered another successful film Main Hoon Naa the same year. He was appreciated for all three of them in various award shows but received a royal snub at the National Film Awards.
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In fact, guess who won the award that year? It was Saif Ali Khan for his film Hum Tum. Fans could not digest this and to date discuss this bias. Even SRK acknowledged it once during an event where he shared the stage with the director of Hum Tum Kunal Kohli.
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When SRK asked him which was the last Hindi film he watched, the filmmaker answered Jai Ho. SRK, who was not on good terms with Salman Khan then, replied, “There’s no accounting for taste.” To this Kunal asked, which was the last bad film you’ve watched? SRK quirkily replied, “Ab teri is stage pe kitni aur beizzati karun main?”
The Pathaan actor then said, “See main dil ka bahut accha hun. Mujhe saare hero acche lagte hain, saari heroine acchi lagti hain, saari filmein acchi lagti. Mujhko har ki acchi lagti hai. I am simple minded person. I like everything, including your films. I loved them them all. I think Fanaa was very good, I liked Hum Tum.”
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Shah Rukh Khan then took a sly dig at Saif Ali Khan for winning an award for Hum Tum while SRK deserved it better for Swades and said, “The actor of Hum Tum (Saif Ali Khan) won the National Award when I should have got it.”
During one of his interviews in those days with Indian Express, even Saif Ali Khan once admitted, “When I found out about my National Award for Hum Tum, I was having breakfast in my bed in London. Mom called me and asked me to take the first flight back. I told her I didn’t want to because I’d have to buy my own ticket. Also, I have my father’s blood in me, so I thought I didn’t deserve it — although I think differently about it now.”
For the unversed, Shah Rukh Khan played a NASA engineer in Swades who comes back to his village and wants to take his caretaker back to America but gets torn between his undeveloped, screaming-for-attention roots in an Indian village and the luxuries of a foreign nation as he has to choose one. The film was directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar and was appreciated much.
For more such throwbacks, stay tuned to Koimoi.
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