Naseeruddin Shah finds awards a result of lobbying

Naseeruddin Shah has won three National Awards for his work in Paar, Sparsh and Iqbaal. He also won three Filmfare Awards for his performances in Akrosh, Chakra and Masoom. In a new interview, the actor opened up about how he does not take awards seriously and feels that they are an outcome of lobbying in the industry.

In a new interview with The Lallantop, the actor was asked about his views on awards and whether there is any truth in the rumours that he uses awards as door handles in his house.

The actor laughed and added, “Any actor who has put their life and effort into portraying a role is a good actor. If you just pick one person from the lot and say that ‘this is the best actor of the year’, how’s it fair? I am not proud of those awards. I did not even go collect the last two awards I received. So, when I built a farmhouse I decided to put these awards there. Whoever goes to the washroom will get two awards each as the handles are made of the Filmfare awards.”

The Ishqiya actor also claimed that awards are nothing but results of lobbying, and said, “I don’t find any value in these trophies. I was happy when I received the initial ones. But then, trophies started piling up around me. Sooner or later I understood that these awards are a result of lobbying. One is receiving these awards not necessarily because of their merit. So I started leaving them behind.

“After that, when I received Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, it reminded me of my deceased father who used to always be worried about my job and said things like ‘if you do this useless work, you will become a fool’. So, when I went to Rashtrapati Bhavan to collect the awards, I looked up and asked my dad if he was seeing all this and I am sure he was happy. I was happy to receive those awards. But I can’t stand these competitive awards.”