Zoya Akhtar Talks About Being The Only One In The Family To Not Win A National Award
Zoya On National Awards
Updated : May 15, 2020 12:09 PM IST
Zoya Akhtar is one of the most talented filmmakers in our country. She has been a part of umpteen successful films and off late with her venture into the digital space, the filmmaker has made huge strides there as well.
She has some of the most popular Bollywood films to her credit. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Talaash, Dil Dhadakne Do Gully Boy, the digital show Made In Heaven, so on and so forth.
All of these films received immense critical acclaim and audiences’ appreciation too. However, the strange part is, Zoya never received any national award for her work.
Well, it was during an interaction with Mid-Day that she opened up about this. Zoya spoke at length about her background and how she used to love watching her mother's cute expressions on the big screen. This is also when she went on to say she is the only one in her family to not have a national award. "Everybody in my family has a National Award— my mother, father, brother [Farhan Akhtar], step-mother [Shabana Azmi], cousin [Farah Khan], everybody. Except me!"
She further went on to reveal her mother received a national award as a kid but she was not quite sure of the name of the film. Quipped she, “I don't know, if it was for Pyaar Ki Pyaas or Taare Zameen Par, one of the two." There was a yesteryear film called Taare Zameen Par? "Zameen Ke Tare! Both my mom and my aunt."
In the interview she further goes on to state that her mother’s acting genes have been passed to her younger brother, "He is a bonafide performer—he always had that. I hate being on stage, or before the camera. My first thing to do with the arts was to write—watching both my parents work at home, discussing scripts… That was one of the first things [in my head]. Directing came later."