After the release of “Srikanth”, a biopic about visually impaired industrialist Srikanth Bolla, many predicted that it would be a strong contender for the National Award. Rajkumar Rao Many consider him a frontrunner for Best Actor. However, while the film did win the Best Hindi Feature Film award, the top acting honor ultimately passed him by.
Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani Denies this is a snub to Rajkummar
Instead, the 72nd National Film Awards Best Actor trophy was presented to Kartik Aaryan and Mammootty represent “Chandu Champion” and “Bramayugam” respectively. Srikanth co-producer Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani, however, rubbished any suggestion that this was a snub to Rajkumar. “I don’t think you can snub an actor as talented as Raj at all. That’s not possible,” she told News18.“I don’t think the National Awards jury would do that. I’m sure they have their reasons. As far as expectations go, every producer wants their cast, crew, and themselves to win. Raj gives one of the best performances of his career in this film. Everyone can see it. As Srikanth, he made him come alive on screen and we are very grateful to him for that,” she added.
Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani calls Kartik Aaryan’s victory well-deserved
Palma, also the director’s wife Tushar Hiranandaniwent on to heap praises on Kartik and firmly believed that he had indeed earned the honor. “Kartik did a great job in Chandu Champion. The National Award jury knew what they were doing. But would we have wanted Raj to win? Of course. Does that mean we don’t want Kartik to win? No. They have taken the right decision,” she said.Nidhi shared that she never really expected the predictions about Srikanth’s big win to come true, noting that the film and Tushar were snubbed at almost every Bollywood award show. “I’m looking forward to some nominations for our film. Our actors won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor awards. The writers were nominated but Tushar was not nominated at all,” she lamented.She further said, “I also don’t know how many nominations this movie got. But in being snubbed by everyone, it felt like it might not happen for us. But it didn’t bother me too much because it didn’t mean we made a less-than-stellar movie. It just meant I didn’t know how to play the game.”
Srikanth’s Oscar snub dampens Nidhi’s hopes
Srikanth’s hopes were further dampened by her failure to be selected for India’s official participation in the Oscars. “There were many talks about our film being considered for Oscars, but it never happened. So, we never had any hopes. That’s why, the National Award was something we didn’t even think about. But then the news came out of nowhere. It’s the highest honor,” she lamented.
Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani says she and Tushar are ‘still in shock’
Not surprisingly, both Nidhi and Tushar are “still in shock”. “We are very grateful but still processing. The National Award was not our dream. We were not even thinking about it but we know we have given our best efforts for the film. We are happy. The Best Film Award belongs not only to us but to everyone involved in the film,” commented Nidhi.