Saif comments on Akshay's National Award win; recollects his own victory for Hum Tum

Mumbai: Recently when the 64^th National Film Awards were announced, they were received with mixed reactions. The jury was vehemently criticized for allegedly being biased.

One of the controversies, which added fuel to the fire was Akshay Kumar winning the Best Actor award for ‘Rustom’ and 'Airlift'.

This isn’t the first time that the credibility of National Awards has been questioned.

Back in 2005, when Saif Ali Khan was bestowed with the Best Actor National Award for  his role in ‘Hum Tum’, the reliability of this prestigious award was even questioned then.

While interacting with a daily, Saif expressed his opinion on this matter and said, “There has been an uproar about Akshay's win at the National Awards. Someone joked if I can get National Award for 'Hum Tum', it's okay for Akshay Kumar to win. A lot of people actually think I won for ‘Omkara’, not ‘Hum Tum’. I take a little offence when people joke about my National Award win.”

Talking about the growing intolerance in our country and people returning their awards, Chhote Nawab added, “People have been saying that I should give my award back but I don’t agree with that. If someone is unhappy with the institution and wants to return his or her award, it’s great. Maybe it was a publicity thing… I honestly don’t know.”

“We are still developing and finding our identity… Everything can’t be judged by the same standard. We have modernized due to television and fashion coming in but in our thinking, we are still years behind the west. They also went through their times of insane nationalism. They finally came out of it and look more sorted today. So, maybe we also need to go through this. Maybe, we need to stir things up. People need to express their opinions and then get into trouble for that. And one day eventually, find a level. And we are doing that right now,” concluded the ‘Rangoon’ actor.

Profound words from the man himself, sweet!