‘Dangal’ star says she owes it to Aamir Khan

Srinagar: Bollywood blockbuster Dangal’s teen star from Kashmir Zaira Wasim Khan said on Friday that she owed her bagging the National Award in ‘Best Supporting Actress’ category to actor, director and producer Aamir Khan “who gave me the opportunity to perform”.

She said, “I’m very happy and honoured to have been conferred with this award. I’m grateful to the Jury for selecting me but I’ll always be grateful to the entire team of d particularly Aamir Sir who provided me the opportunity in the movie.”

Soon after the awards were announced, Ms. Khan was felicitated by various people including former Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, who tweeted, “Congratulations to Zaira Wasim who was named Best Supporting Actor for her role in #Dangal #NationalFilmAwards”.

Versatile actress Shabana Aazmi sent her greetings. and wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.com “Congratulations! So well deserved #ZairaWasim. It is such a lovely performance. Bless you.”

Ms. Khan who played the role of young Geeta Phogat in sports biopic Dangal, starring Aamir Khan in the lead, had hit the headlines earlier this year after she took to social networking site Facebook to tender public apology over her meeting Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, the engagement which had evoked criticism back home and she was accused of socializing with “killers” of Kashmir’s young boys and girls. She, however, deleted her post later.

In January this year, Zaira who has been signed up for Aamir Khan’s next production Secret Superstar, took on Sports Minister Vijay Goel after he sought to draw comparison between a burkha-clad woman’s painting and her. She asked she should not be connected with such a “discourteous depiction”.

Mr. Goel in a tweet had posted a painting from an exhibition which was a portrait of a woman in burkha and another shown in a cage with it and he wrote, “This painting tells a story similar to @zairawasim. Our girls are breaking out from cages and moving ahead. More power to our daughters!” Zaira,16, reacted by tweeting “@VijayGoelBJP Sir, with all respect to you, I feel I must disagree. I request you not to connect me to such a discourteous depiction”. In another tweet, she said that the story depicted through this painting was “not even remotely relevant to mine”. In yet another tweet she said that women in hijab are “beautiful and free”.

The Union minister while defending himself said on the micro-blogging site Twitter.com “You have interpreted wrong. I appreciated your work and stated that evil and patriarchal notions must be discouraged”. He added, “I’m afraid you still haven’t understood. But I wish you all the very best and appreciate your work. Hope to meet & interact too.”