When Aamir Khan felt that awards were a source of encouragement

We all know the age-old battle between Aamir Khan and award shows. For the uninitiated, in 1996, Shah Rukh Khan won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Aamir too was nominated in the same category for Rangeela and was upset because he felt that he deserved the award more than Shah Rukh and that theorganisers had always been biased towards SRK.

The other nominees in the Best Actor category were Ajay Devgn for Naajayaz, Govinda for Coolie No.1 and Salman Khan for Karan Arjun. After this incident, Aamir stopped attending award ceremonies (except the Oscars for Lagaan) and even refuses to send his movie clips to be used for nominations. However, many award ceremonies still nominate the actor.

However, there was a time before 1996, when Aamir was actually keen to win an award. In an interview with a leading website, before the release of Andaz Apna Apna in 1994, the actor spoke about how winning an award was a source of encouragement to work better. The actor stated, "When it comes to awards, that is decided by the jury. So, the jury decides whom to give the award to. We all try our best to win an award, so I try my best as well. Hence, it is possible that I might get an award in the near future. I feel that as an actor, I don't think I am a great actor and I am not satisfied with my level of performance right now. I feel, I still have a lot to learn and when it comes to awards, they are an encouragement. If you win an award, you get a bit of an encouragement to work better. You feel as if someone has given you respect."

"But, that respect and encouragement are not earned only by awards but from your fans as well, the ones that you get to meet. Whenever I meet someone and they compliment my work, I feel very happy and I get encouraged to do better work. The letters by fans, the messages I get on my phone (laughs), I feel happy that people have taken the effort to tell me about my work and I appreciate that. I am always thankful to the people because of who my films are successful. I am always thankful to them that they are appreciative of my work," Aamir added.

Watch the full interview below in which Aamir also speaks about his equation with Shah Rukh, Salman and Saif Ali Khan:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=BlnFiaNuhj8[/YOUTUBE]