Vyjayanthimala on controversial decision to honour Raveena Tandon with National Award for Daman: ‘There was a lot of heat and dust, but…’
It has been decades since the incident, but recently, veteran actor and dancer Vyjayanthimala opened up about the 2001 controversy surrounding Raveena Tandon‘s win at the National Awards. Vyjayanthimala was the head of jury at the time, and when Raveena walked away with the Best Actress honour, a few eyebrows were raised regarding her win as they thought the actor had won because her maternal uncle McMohan was a jury member. McMohan is most famously known for playing the iconic role of Samba in Sholay.
Speaking to Times of India, the actor said that sure there was a lot of hullabaloo surrounding Raveena’s win for Daman, but the actor had won for her sensitive portrayal of a domestic abuse survivor and not due to her connections within the jury.
“I remember the incident vividly. There was a lot of heat and dust about Raveena winning the award. But isn’t that the norm? Each year someone or the other has an objection,” the actor said, and explained why Raveena was conferred the National Award, adding that it was not an easy task to pull off such a role and talk about these issues in a gentle but intelligent manner.
At the time, Daman director Kalpana Lajmi had also defended her win, and apparently even compared it to Shabana Azmi’s performance in Lajmi’s film Ek Pal, calling Raveena’s act superior. Meanwhile, Anil Kapoor was given the Best Actor National Award for his performance in the Rajkumar Santoshi film Pukar, which also starred Madhuri Dixit and Namrata Shirodkar in pivotal roles.
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