It’s Just a TV Show!
Is it just a TV show? Sajid Khan sure seems to think so. In a way he’s right.
It’s what film awards in our country have been reduced to. Anyone and everyone with sufficient resources to hire a capable event management firm seems to be able to put together an awards ceremony, invite celebs, dish out an award to every recognizable name possible so nobody is pissed off, and in turn make tons of money via television advertising. It’s a pretty darn good business model.
So why pretend it’s something else? Why mislead film professionals and audiences that talent is being recognized and merit rewarded? Either scrap the awards and put up a memorable variety show, or be fair and share the dough.
Certain sections of the industry reportedly are exploring the option of charging a fee for attending such award shows…pardon me…TV shows. So since the cat is out of the bag, courtesy Sajid Khan, why make any bones about it? Does it seem fair that stars, actors, filmmakers and technicians take time out of their busy schedules, attend these awards shows, allow MCs to ridicule them publicly, and sit like silent ducks while the organizers walk away with tons of cash?
And if you insist on calling yourself an awards show, then put up an awards show, not a farce. For some people, an awards show may be just another party, an evening of mingling and laughter. But for many others, regardless of the reputation of the award itself, an awards show holds deep significance.
For the filmmaker who put in loads of hard work into his film which may have bombed in the box office, that lone award, even if it isn’t specifically for him or her, may provide some amount of respite. For the humble parents who spent sleepless nights working, and later worrying, all to support their son or daughter’s dreams of making it in the film world, that first award gives meaning to their struggle, provides a sense of relief and immense pride and joy that is inexplicable. For that technician who slogged a decade assisting others, getting pushed around, yelled at and cursed, making barely any money, living hand-to-mouth, winning that award again provides meaning and satisfaction beyond anything. Heck, even to our very own Academy Award nominated Mr. Gowariker, the award at this “TV show” for Jodhaa Akbar had so much meaning, one can only imagine what the sentiments are for others.
The case in point is not what award it is. Filmfare, Screen, Producer’s Guild, IIFA whatever. Call them popular, call them a joke, demerit them. But to most people who walk on that stage and receive one, a recognition is a recognition that each one will cherish!
So what gives an MC or an organizer the right to create an environment that projects such meaning to its invitees, and then shamelessly ruin it when they call them on stage?
Poking fun at people at awards shows is nothing new. The Academy Awards, that Farah Khan so baselessly refers to in order to justify her brat brother’s disgusting behavior, have always had a tradition of incorporating humor into the MC script. But the show does not revolve around it. Winners are not mocked on stage. They are honored. Sure Chris Rock, Ellen, Jon Stuart may have made jokes on many of the attendees. But they never crossed the line. Humor has its place, and the Oscar, the award, the moment of the award has its own.
So Mrs. Khan, equating pathetic jokes and insults towards awardees, even if they are by you or your kid brother, with the music playing at the Oscars to usher long speakers off stage is as stupid as classifying Main Hoon Naa and Om Shanti Om in the same caliber as Lagaan and Swades.
The argument that it is ok to insult and mock the hard work of film professionals just because the film industry is one big, fat, happy family is ludicrous. I would like to ask Farah Khan if she would mock and jest the same way if her husband Shirish Kunder was walking up the stage to receive a best editor award. Would Sajid Khan insult his brother-in-law publicly the way he ridiculed other awardees? I think not! So what bloody family sentiments are you trying to throw around here?
This is not to say that Mr. Gowariker is not at fault either. While I greatly admire his guts to get out there and speak out, possibly facing the ridicule of an industry, he could have put his protest across more effectively. He could have declined the award, which would have made a far stronger statement. He could have told Sajid off and walked off instead of getting into an argument. And why on earth did he apologize after asking Khan to shut up? I mean come on Mr. Gowariker, you said what everyone in the audience probably wanted to say. In fact, Sajid Khan deserved far worse. And to add to it all, when Sajid & Farah made their stupid arguments on the mic after you left the stage, why did you have to react by standing up and making those gestures. Barking dogs are easier ignored. Why give them so much importance? Your protest could have had far stronger meaning and reverberance had you maintained your composure and class.
Last year, Saif Ali Khan and the King of B’wood, SRK made a comeback to the Filmfare awards stage, poking fun at the industry, with TRPs soaring. They pissed a lot of people off in their first attempt after which they were kept off stage for a few years. Some people may ask whether being SRK makes it ok to poke fun at others. Certainly not. But I dont remember either SRK or Saif insulting anyone, although they perhaps crossed the line last year with the Vidya Balan episode. I dont write in their defense for I was peeved at how the class associated with Filmfare awards had degenerated exponentially over the years.
SRK & Saif pioneered celebrity mocking at award shows. With such role models, how could Sajid Khan, a man who shot to fame mocking films, filmmakers, and film actors on his TV shows, be far behind? And with what credence does he dare to mock and jest when Ashutosh Gowariker and Ronnie Screwvala stand on stage to receive an award? Is he flattering himself again with the box office figures of that sorry excuse of a movie called Hey Baby, a plagiarized schlock-fest that ran only because of Akshay Kumar’s star power? And then he rounds it all off by justifying himself as an entertainer. You’re not an entertainer. You’re just a disrespectful moron!
Perhaps Sajid and Farah had specific instructions to keep pissing people off, until that lone ranger’s tolerance broke and Star TV had some scandalous material for an intriguing promo. Perhaps Mr. Gowariker was just having a horrible day with Rock On walking away with all the awards. Perhaps the Khan siblings just got a little overexcited because of the hesitant giggles from the audience and polite, acknowledging smiles of the awardees. Who knows? But as a member of the audience, may I please ask why we can’t have anything more than just a TV show?
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
nice write-up. i was repulsed when i heard sajid utter those crappy words. wtf. why make so much tamasha if its just a tv show. why don’t they just do some circus and go home. they stand on the podium and ridicule the stars. after filmfare, screen is the next most valued awards; but sajid khan has converted tat to a tv show as well :(
i was expecting the indian express group to ask sajid khan to issue an apology to the industry. a person like neeraj pandey walks away with 3 awwards, just to get to know at the end tat its a fuckin mockery…a tv show. so, wat abt the prestige of the awards and the stars???
ashu shud have declined the awards too; given it back to sajid. yeah fat bloke…its a tv show so take home the award for the worst entertainer and host
really disgusting !!!
Very well written piece. I completely agree with every sentence written. I’m happy Mr. Gowarikar spoke out. Somebody with his stature has to start speaking out. He’s a human being, I don’t expect him to be more dignified than he was. He was struggling with himself not to speak out. He was struggling to just say what he was formally supposed to. Sajid Khan’s words just brought out the avalanche. I feel this whole “we are all fraternity and family” is a big eye wash. SRK says things which he always wanted to say. He insults people whom he wanted to. But such things definitely have to be put to an end. I hope organizers learn a lesson. I seriously hope there are more celebrities like Gowarikar. His Swades spoke a lot about the man. So did he on the awards show.
Very well articulated post. However vi-a-vis SRK and Saif, while they are indeed funny, and while I don’t think they really crossed the line with Vidya- many of SRK’s ‘jokes’ at last year’s Filmfare were indeed very personal and targetted specific people for very specific reasons. Even though SRK has the pizazz to pull it off and get away with it, this is really not on.
In fact Sacha Baren Cohen got a really sour and disgusted response from the audience at the Golden Globes for his Guy-Madonna jibe.
As for the Oscars, Farah Madam, Ashutosh has been there and done that, and you and your brother can perhaps only hope to do the same.
All the desi award functions, be it “Fillum Farce”, Screen, Zee,Bee, Lee or whatever new appelation u add to it, are a joke. No point even discussing such pathetic events.
Awards given out left, right and center to make every one happy. Teary eyed tributes to didi, bhai, saasu maa, Dad, Mom that are puke worthy. Item Songs that are so boring. And what of some of Bollywood’s legends who receive their Lifetime Achievement Award, they are rarely applauded, the audience hesitates to applaud them, God what a bunch of egoistic crap heads, the Industry is made of. The award functions in India are just a sick joke, and nothing else.
The most Hilarious thing was race getting award for best screenplay from Anurag Kashyap…..That was moment of the show …..we should stop taking these shows seriously…the whole ashu-sajid thing may be a setup for trp boosting and all ….afterall its a TV show ..
Why are all these award functions 4 hrs long?! We have had enough of naach-gaana in the movies, why repeat the same for the T.V. audience?! I change the channel when they start dancing.
Why do we have a critics award?popular award? and then the best actor/actress award? in one award function?!
Why do we need to have 10 hosts?! the same ones evey year.
Read that SRK might host filmfare this year with ‘Russel Peters’. *I just died*
Somebody needs to pull out a limerick based on this whole fiasco and we will forget it all.
My main problem with Sajid Khan is that he just isn’t funny. That guy isn’t funny.. That last time that he said something that was genuinely worth chuckling was when he proclaimed in all his seriousness that Heyy Baby was a great film..
Now that is what I call funny.. Gimme something like that and then we will bring this whole audience theory into perspective..
@Vijay,
“And why on earth did he apologize after asking Khan to shut up?”
By saying sorry, I guess Ashutosh was making Sajid Khan realise that how it feels.
Sajid and Farah were reiterating that they insult people of film fraternity under the disguised dose of so called humour because they thought filmi people belong to one big family and everybody sitting there belongs to this filmi family.
Ashutosh said exactly that he asked Sajid Khan to “shut up” and later he said “Sorry”, because “we are friends, belonging to same family, I said shut up and now I say sorry”.
He reverted table for Sajid Khan. He played reverse shot.
This is not about hindi film industry only. People write anything and cover it by saying it was for the sake of humour and when same dose of humour is given to them then sky falls from heaven (or may be hell).
I am waiting for the day when Farah Khan will make HER film. All that she has done so far is do ’spoofs’ on bollywood. Right from that song in ‘Dil Chahta hai’ to her film OSO, it has only been spoofs and again ridiculing in the name of humour. What right does she have to make digs at the likes of Ashutosh Gowarikar?
I think the most tasteless comment of the evening was Sajid in ‘Bhikari’ avatar telling Neeraj Pandey, ‘ Looking at your clothes, I shouldn’t be begging to you’. And he expects a pat on the back for this Z grade humour!
Very nice article.I agree with every word you have written.Who is Sajid Khan anyways to poke fun at the stalwarts of the industry?Will he ever dare to do that to Shahrukh who is “like family”?The answer is no.But he can do that to a talented director like Neeraj Pandey just because he is not part of any “camp” and is new.Are you actually honouring people or what?The awards have lost all meaning and decency.Aamir was right in boycotting it long time back.
Even Neeraj Pandey took a jibe at Sajid when he collected his third award and was asked to speak a bit longer … “i guess i first need to get some new clothes”
I think guys like Aamir & Ajay Devgan have got it right. Just dont go to these award functions. Akshay’s just given an interview saying that all award functions are rigged – I think he’s likely to drop off too. Why grace them with your presence when they clearly hold no meaning? One can understand the first few times. But if you keep going back for more, you have no one else to blame but yourself. I’m not supporting the shows here …just pointing out that there is a way out for anyone who is offended.
@Vijay … hahahhahah … no one shud even use the names of sajid khan and jon stewart in the same sentence … stewart is a legend wid sharp point based political humor while sajid khan likes to cross dress or do gay caricatures … I dont see who the hell finds that funny …
another thing … WTF was ANURAG KASHYAP doing there ?? I thought he hated this facade …
well, at least they’ve got all of US heckling on about this…
it’s just a TV show, innit?!
i’m sorry, but i don’t see any dignity in AG’s reaction to SK and FK… however distasteful their humour. If he didn’t have it in him to react with some class and panache, he should just not have.
I almost fell off my chair seeing Anurag Kashyap out there too and watch him say HI to Farah in a really goofy manner..
Its was terrible that Neeraj dint say anything..But they could have just given him a moment or two. I thought he looked too shocked and dint know how to get rid of his chewing gum.
Sajid and Farah just acted like bunch of snobs. Farah felt like a bully to me. jokes were terrible. to say the least. I wanted Raju shrivastav up there for comic relief!!
AG just got way too angry and there is this need to talk in English and the brain is probably still thinking in HIndi/marathi and he couldnt come up with reasons quickly . I really want to see these award shows in HIndi. They wud just be more enjoyable that way.
Loved the one Mr.Mishra who spoke very well.
Rekha was so wierd and sounded desperate..really sad. so was Aishwarya…dignified in her speech but the mere mention of Abhishek and she turns juvenile.
“AG just got way too angry and there is this need to talk in English and the brain is probably still thinking in HIndi/marathi and he couldnt come up with reasons quickly”
Thats hilarious DarkandDusky.
If AG reads this he might come after you.
Why was Neeraj chewing Gum? Was he high?
Does he like Cocaine?
hmmmm
I think all these awrad functions give importance to entertainment..thats it!!..
@ mainak…
seriously when i see some veterans mouthing mediocre angrezi (dilip kumar, dharmendra and sanjay khan from the show come to mind) I know they wud have had so much to say and how ..if only they had started out in Hindi.
It is not easy to get eloquent under the spotlight. Big B does it with ease….but he is a master at both languages.
Neeraj cudnt get enuff of that chingum ..jaane kya tha usme. :-) kuch to keh deta. loved wednesday. Somebody needs to give Naseer and kher
many more movies..
the camera kept showing an unsmiling and bored AG at regular intervals from the beginning- the jokes were bad this year. not much repeat value in comedy. we need fresh fodder every time. I mean Vidya Balan is much safer going around naked. Everybody pounces on her clothes anyways..
Baarbaar Kitni cheer phaad karoge …
@darkndusky (17)
“Baarbaar Kitni cheer phaad karoge …”
You know…jab ek movie hit hoti hai to uski pachees carbon copies ban jaati hain. The so called “humour” in awards functions has just started. Give it a few more shows. They’ll cry themselves hoarse with their “jokes” till they get something else to substitute for it.
I laughed my guts out when they tried to give the excuse that same things happen at the oscars. How I wish they had also realised that the anchor’s script at the oscars changes every year.
Sajid
I used to like your comedy but now you host very cheaply. Your sister Farah should shut her mouth completely.
Ashutosh is great director Hindi film industry and all country proud of him so please apologize him immidiately
Very well written indeed. This is what I call analytically rational criticism. Bravo.