While Kollywood bagged six awards this year at the 63rd National Awards, Tamil fans are outraged that actor Vikram’s performance in “I” was not recognized in the best actor category.
Vikram’s transformation from beast to Adonis in the film had been seen as remarkable and fans were unable to see why Vikram did not receive any accolades for it.
Now, music director Gangai Amaran, who was a part of the National Awards jury has offered clarifications on why “I” did not receive any awards.
According to Gangai Amaran, “I” did not make it to the final short list for various reasons that were known only to those involved in the initial screening process. In order to enter the final shortlist, a film should be ranked among the top 30 per cent of films, which then are submitted to the central committee for final review.
He said that other films like “Pasanga 2” produced by actor Suriya, and Mani Ratnam's “Ok Kanmani” also did not make it to the finals.
The jury panel is divided into 6 groups on the basis of region, and among the South Indian states, Tamil and Malayalam come under one group while Kannada and Telugu are in another.
Gangai Amaran clarified that he tried, as a jury member, to have “I” and “Pasanga 2”, reviewed and re-examined in the final stage. But the request was apparently countered by other members from the committee, who also wanted to re-examine 2 movies from their regional language.
Ultimately the list of films to be re-examined increased to 60 films, and the jury were faced with the prospect of long delays as a result. Hence, the jury had to forgo those films and move forward with the original shortlist.
This clarification comes in response to the many tweets from fans of Vikram under the hashtag #RIPNationalAwards. Fans also created a number of memes on the subject that were widely shared.
National Award-winning cinematographer PC Sreeram, who worked on “I”, had also criticised the decision to ignore the film on Twitter. “No award for vikram (kenny). Sorry the nation awards many times misses its point. Its not vikrams loss its loss to the national awards.”
(Content provided by Digital Native)