When Bollywood award juries IGNORED Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor for top honours!

By Sreeju Sudhakaran
| Updated: February 8, 2016 12:52 PM IST

We give you further proof why our award shows are so skewered!

If any of the Bollywood award organisers tell you that they are targeting to be India's answer to the Oscars, do one thing - laugh on their faces! Also Read - Animal: Ridhi Dogra praises Sandeep Reddy Vanga; sharply retorts to a troll who hints she's begging for work from Ranbir Kapoor

For apna award functions are millions of leagues away before they can even claim to be a Golden Globes, forget Oscars! Motivated more by the ratings, star power and shock factors, the award juries don't look for 'trifle' things that matter when it comes awarding a right person or a film - like say, a good performance and a good story! All that matters is if the film did a decent business or has a decent plot. We are grounded people; we just don't aim for the skies! Also Read - Bachchans, Khans, Kapoors: Did you know how many actors are there in these Bollywood families?

So like every year, even 2016 was disappointing when it came to awards shows. We already have a few awards functions done away with, the major ones being Screen and Filmfare, yet each was disappointing in their own unique ways. Above all, many of them chose to ignore the below actors, who deserved a better piece of pie, than what they really got in the end! Also Read - Animal: Ranbir Kapoor's costar Tripti Dimri reveals THIS superstar was her first crush

Salman Khan - Bajrangi Bhaijaan

What he should have got: Best Actor (Popular)

Okay...Salman Khan's performance in Bajrangi Bhaijaan might not be the best of the year. But we do have a category called Popular Choice, which goes for the actor who was the most popular with the masses that year. For man who has delivered two mega hits in Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Salman Khan certainly deserves to get the award over Shah Rukh Khan, who got the Best Actor (Popular Choice) for Dilwale in Screen Awards 2016. Sure, Dilwale was a hit, but was it more popular than Bajrangi Bhaijaan? NOPES!

Akshay Kumar - Baby

What he should have got: Best Actor (Popular)

Like Salman Khan, even Akshay Kumar had a great year with Singh is Bliing, Gabbar is Back, Brothers all doing decent business. However, it was his Baby that wowed both the masses and the classes, and Akshay, who played the no-nonsense and patriotic ATS officer was terrific, to say the least. Why the jury chose to not consider him for any awards is a mystery not even Sherlock can crack!

Varun Dhawan - Badlapur

What he should have got: Best Actor (Critics)

For a 20-something lad to play a 40 year old bloodthirsty guy so convincingly is not a mean feat to achieve. Unfortunately, though he was nominated for a couple of awards, Varun Dhawan's terrific performance in Badlapur was not deemed award-worthy by the jury. If this is how they want to motivate youngsters to do more meaningful films, I won't blame the young actors for doing films like ABCD 2 and Dilwale.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Manjhi The Mountain Man

What he should have got: Best Actor (Critics)

Seriously, why was this terrific performance ignored? Manjhi might not be the movie of the year, but Nawazuddin's portrayal of the Mountain Main was certainly the performance of the year. It was both uplifting and heartrending at the same time, as Nawaz brought us a character that would have been a Oscar darling if the film was ever made in the US. Seriously guys, appreciate great performances that we have in Bollywood, before you pray for Leonardo DiCaprio to get an Oscar this year!

Gulshan Devaiah - Hunterrr

What he should have got: Best Actor (Critics)

Hunterrr was one of the best underrated movies of 2015, and if you have missed it, you have missed a movie that showed us that even off beat films are funny and enjoyable. The main reason why we loved Hunterrr so much was the natural performance of its lead actor, Gulshan Devaiah. He was so brilliant in the role, that many of us men felt he was taking pages from our own lives. Unfortunately, the jury think on a completely different and bizarre plane, and the poor bloke was not even nominated. And we claim that we want to outdo Oscars!

Vicky Kaushal and Richa Chadda - Masaan

What they should have got: Best Debutant (Male)/ Best Supporting Actress or Best Actress (Critics)

Masaan was the darling at the Cannes 2015, and even won an award there, but for Bollywood film award juries, international recognition and critical acclaim hardly matter, only superstars and box office figures do. That explains why Vicky Kaushal was exclusively ignored over Sooraj Pancholi for Best Debutant for a few occasions, except Screen Awards 2016. People argue that his first film was Bombay Velvet where he had a miniscule role, but it was also released in the same year as Masaan. Also didn't Filmfare award gave Farhan Akhtar the best Debutant award for Rock On, when his actual debut was The Fakir? And there is no justification as to why Richa Chadda was royally ignored, when Sonam Kapoor's performance in Dolly ki Doli got nominated in Filmfare!

Konkona Sen Sharma - Talvar

What she should have got: Best Supporting Actress or Best Actress (Critics)

People often forget that Talvar is as much as Konkona Sen Sharma's film, as much as Irrfan's and of course, Neeraj Kabi's. However, I loved Konkona's role better, because she gets to play various shades to her character, right from a grieving mother to a manipulative accessory to a murder, based on the various perspective of the narrative. And it's her wonderful and ambiguous portrayal that make us want to trust her character's innocence, yet can't fully. Maybe the actress got a lot of awards in the past, so the jury chose to ignore her this year!

Omkar Kapoor and Sunny Nijar - Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2

What they should have got: Best Debutant (Male)

Let me remind you of this one business fact - Hero was a dismal flop, critically as well as box-office wise, while Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 fared much, much better in both aspects. So why are the young stars of the film, who were the pillars of the film's success, so ignored over a flop film that they didn't get a decent chance to get that Best Debutant award? Is it because none of them were star-kids? The nation wants to know...

Ranvir Shorey - Titli

What he should have got: Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Titli was another overlooked film, that was replete with some terrific performances, even from the newcomers Shashank Arora and Shivani Raghuvanshi. However, ignoring the mind blowing and even terrifying act by Ranvir Shorey is a sheer crime. If you still can't hate his character, even after his various shows of cruelty, then that is his success as an actor in the film. Maybe the National Awards could give him a more deserving recognition...

Ranbir Kapoor - Tamasha

What he should have got: Best Actor (Popular or Critics)

Tamasha might have got polarizing reviews (I, for one, fall under the less impressed category), but no one has any doubts about Ranbir's exemplary performance about a man in doubt of his own life. Playing two very differents sides of his own psyche, Ranbir washes away the sins of his previous duds (Besharam, Roy, Bombay Velvet), as he brings about a varied range of emotions and nuances, right from the fun-loving Casanova that we see him at first to the boring, almost robotic executive, to a man who could be suffering from bipolar disorder. Too bad, it came in the same year, where Ranveer Singh was near perfect as Bajirao.

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BySreeju Sudhakaran
| Updated: February 8, 2016 12:52 PM IST