In today’s weekend blog, I am writing about some interesting trivia about Hindi films.
You must have observed that many times the actor/actress has given the best performance of his/her career but yet that work goes unawarded by Bollywood’s popular awards namely Filmfare awards. Here are a few such performances which definitely deserved the award:
1 Aamir Khan for Rangeela
The perfectionist had given his best performance in the 1995 film Rangeela. He had played the most memorable role of Munna and focused on his body language and local Mumbaikar accent which in everyone’s opinion was too good. The actor’s hard work and dedication were seen in the film. The critics and masses had highly predicted that he will walk away with the Best Actor award. But instead, the award was given to Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ), which was a SRK’s routine performance, there was nothing extraordinary in this performance. It was after this that Aamir Khan decided to boycott all the popular award shows.
2 Kamal Hasan for Chachi 420
The iconic South superstar had given an unforgettable performance in this movie. People almost forgot that Chachi is actually a male actor all because he had played the role with such perfection. The reason the movie was sidelined from any awards was that it was not a mainstream Bollywood film. The award was given to SRK for Dil To Paagal Hai.
3 Tabu for Maqbool
She played the role of Nimmi in the movie. It was a layered character and anyone who could do justice to it was Tabu. The actress deserved all the awards for her performance, however, the Best Actress award was given to Rani Mukherjee for her acting in Hum Tum. Disappointingly Tabu was not even nominated for the award even after giving a career-defining performance.
4 Manoj Bajpayee for Shool
He played the role of an honest police officer. It was the first movie where he was in the lead role, and he managed to impress the audience with his outstanding performance. No doubt it was one of the best performances in his career which rightfully deserved an award. However, Manoj lost the award to Sanjay Dutt for his performance in Vaastav, but it was not the first time Sanjay was playing the role of a hooligan.
5 Sushant Singh Rajput for MS Dhoni The Untold Story
The late actor had given his best to portray the character of Dhoni with perfection. He had put in a lot of effort which was clearly seen in the movie. But Sadly Sushant won no award for his performance. The award was given to Aamir Khan for the film Dangal, undoubtedly Aamir was great in the picture. However, he does not accept any award it would have been better if the award would have given to Sushant.
6 Vicky Kaushal for Masaan
The audience was impressed with Vicky’s acting as Deepak in his debut movie. It was an understated performance that the actor had played with sincerity. Everybody thought that the actor would bag the best newcomer award, but was not even nominated. The best debut award was instead given to Sooraj Pancholi for the film Hero. Acting wise Vicky definitely deserved the award.
7 Irrfan Khan for Maqbool
The biggest highlight of Maqbool was the late actor Irrfan Khan’s performance. The way he portrayed the character was absolutely outstanding and is one of the performances that is still studied in Acting Schools. Surprisingly, the acting was recognized all over the world and was not even nominated for the award. The award was given to SRK for Swades.
There is one more performance that should have been included in the list, but avoided it because I did not want to repeat the actor in the list. That performance is by Manoj Bajpayee playing the character of Bhikhu Mhatre in the film Satya. This was Manoj’s first big role in mainstream Hindi films, and he was the life of Satya. Although it was not a leading role, although he was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor award, the award was given to Salman Khan for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, even Salman was surprised when his name was announced.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
18th August 2023