After ‘Srikanth’, the biopic on visually impaired industrialist Srikanth Bolla, hit the screens, many predicted that he would be a big contender at the National Awards, with Rajkummar Rao Several were the favorite for best actor. However, although the film bagged the award for Best Hindi Film, it ultimately missed out on the Best Performance honor.
Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani denies it is a snub to Rajkummar
Instead, the Best Actor trophy at the 72nd National Film Awards was jointly shared by Kartik Aarya and Mammootty, for ‘Chandu Champion’ and ‘Bramayugam’ respectively. “Srikanth” co-producer Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani, however, dismisses any suggestion that this counts as a snub to Rajkummar. “I think you can’t downgrade an actor of Raj’s caliber. That’s not possible,” he tells News18.“I don’t think the National Awards jury would. I’m sure they had their reasons. When it comes to expectations, every creator wants a win for their cast, their team and themselves. And Raj has given one of the best performances of his career in this film. It’s there for everyone to see. As Srikanth, he brought it alive on screen and we are very grateful to him for that,” he adds.
Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani calls Kartik Aaryan’s win well deserved
Parmar, who is also married to the director Tushar Hiranandanihe goes on to praise Kartik, convinced that he truly earned the honor. “Kartik has done a phenomenal job in Chandu Champion. The National Awards jury knew what they were doing. But would we want Raj to win? Absolutely. Does that mean we didn’t want Kartik to win? No. They’ve made the right decision,” he says.Nidhi shares that she never expected the predictions of Srikanth’s big win to come true, and points to the fact that both the film and Tushar have been largely snubbed at almost every award function in Bollywood. “I was expecting some nominations for our film. Our cast members received awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. The writers were nominated but Tushar was not nominated at all,” he laments.He also continues, “I don’t know how many nominations the movie got either. But through the process of being rejected by everyone, I felt like maybe it’s not happening for us. But it didn’t bother me too much because it didn’t mean we made a lesser movie. It just meant I don’t know how to play.”
Srikanth’s Oscar snub had dampened Nidhi’s hopes
The fact that Srikanth was not chosen as India’s official entry to the Oscars had further dashed her hopes. “There were talks that our film was considered for the Oscars many times, which never happened. So we never had any hope. That’s why the National Award was something we didn’t even think about. But then the news came out of nowhere. This is the highest honor,” he exclaims.
Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani says she and Tushar are ‘still in shock’
Unsurprisingly, both Nidhi and Tushar are “still in shock”. “We are very grateful, but we are still processing. The National Award was not a dream that we had. We didn’t even think about it, but we knew that we had given our best to the film. We are very happy. The award for the best film is not just for us. It is for everyone involved in the film,” remarks Nidhi.