Anil, Raveena: 'Controversy is unfortunate!'

Bollywood personalities, including the 48th National Films Award winners for Best Actor, Anil Kapoor, and Best Actress, Raveena Tandon, termed the controversy over the alleged rigging of the awards as "unfortunate".

Kapoor and Tandon expressed dismay over the controversy, saying it was confined only to best actor and actress categories. "How come only these awards were allegedly rigged? Why was there no rigging for best film and best director awards?" asked Kapoor. "If the jury was biased towards these two awards, they would have given awards to Pukar or Daman," he said.

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt told newsmen here that the Minister for Information & Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj had already clarified that the awards were not rigged. There was no reason to disbelieve the minister, he said.

Bhatt wondered why only integrity of awards given to commercial cinema were being questioned and not that of art films. If some members of the jury had decided to step down and question these awards, why were they doing it in the light of the media, he asked.

PTI

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