Bhandarkar questions Neil's exclusion from award

After nominations for SCREEN awards were announced Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra was seen blasting SCREEN for largely ignoring Delhi 6 from the nominations that have been announced, it is Madhur Bhandarkar's turn. Reason? His Jail has been truly and completely ignored. While it can be argued that nominations were based on popularity quotient of the films and the artists involved, Bhandarkar is holding a grudge.

While Jail hasn't fetched him any nominations, Madhur is even more shocked with the exclusion of Neil Nitin Mukesh from the list created for 'Best Actor'. The ones who have made the cut are Aamir Khan (3 Idiots), Amitabh Bachchan (Paa), Ranbir Kapoor (2 nominations for Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani and Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year), Saif Ali Khan (Love Aaj Kal) and Shahid Kapur (Kaminey).

Says a source close to Bhandarkar, "He is just not able to digest that Neil's performance in Jail has been ignored. Ok, so the film didn't do too well at the box office but at the end of the day it wins critical acclaim. It's really surprising and only leads one to look at the nominations list more carefully."

It could well be a trend in the making for Madhur Bhandarkar as far as SCREEN nominations are concerned. Last year too when nominations were announced for the 'Best of the Best in 2008', Fashion wasn't nominated for Best Film, Best Music or Best Director. However, Priyanka Chopra and Kangna did see nominations coming their way while there were a few other categories as well where Fashion did make a cut.

"See, Madhur is not taking things personally because of him being ignored in the nominations. He is sport and mature enough to understand that. However, he doesn't buy the point around popularity quotient being the deciding factor. After all actors, from certain films which didn't work at the box office have also been nominated", questions the source, "Also, let the fact be known that from recovery standpoint, Jail was a breakeven preposition for the makers."

Madhur Bhandarkar, who has recently returned from Kashmir after a family holiday, has ever since then been severely disappointed with the state of affairs. Though he was unwilling to comment on exclusion of Jail in general, he didn't mince words when it came to Neil Nitin Mukesh.

"It's a known fact that almost all critics, quite a few prominent members from the film fraternity as well as audiences who saw the film had hailed Neil's performance. Really, if performance was the only criteria for an actor to be nominated, then Neil should have made it to the list and so should have Manoj Bajpai for Best Supporting Actor. These exclusions only lead me to speculate about what happens behind closed doors when it comes to awards", comments Madhur.