Like Receiving an Award From My Driver: Salman on Filmfare Awards

#BoycottFilmfare began to trend on Twitter after ‘Gully Boy’ swept the main categories.

Actor Salman Khan at an event in Mumbai.

(Photo: Yogen Shah)

The 65th Filmfare Awards were held on Saturday, 15 February, with Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy sweeping almost all the main categories, including Best Actor, Best Film and Best Director. While the cast and crew were thrilled, not everyone shared their sentiments. #BoycottFilmare began trending on Twitter as people questioned the credibility of the awards show, asking why films such as Kesari, Mission Mangal and Super 30 had been snubbed.

One Twitter user shared an old video of Salman Khan in which he can be heard explaining his reasons for choosing to boycott the Filmfare awards. However, his statements were condescending, classist and politically incorrect, rather than being an honest critique of the event. He explained that the awards lacked legitimacy since the publication which organises them is indebted to Bollywood for its success.

The actor said,

“I will not go up and pick up a Filmfare award. There were three or four awards that they contacted me for; I didn’t want to go pick them up. If I win a National Award, that’s prestigious, I will go and pick it up. But I will not go to a magazine that is running on our (the film industry) strength, understand? A magazine that depends on celebrities to sell it tells you that they will give you an award and asks you to perform at the ceremony and then they sell it to Pan Parag or Manikchand, and we’re sitting there like idiots dressed to the nines.”

Salman Khan, Actor

He went on to compare them to receiving an award from his driver or makeup man, adding,

“It’s like tomorrow, my driver and my servant and my makeup man will come to me and say, ‘Baba, today we’re giving you an award.’ It’s stupid.”

Salman Khan

The 65th Filmfare Awards were held in Guwahati, Assam. While Gully Boy and Kabir Singh topped the nominations list, the former made history by winning the most number of awards for a single film, besting Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2005 film Black. Check out the full list of winners here.