5 Times Aamir Khan Deserved A National Award But Didn’t Get It

Aamir Khan is a complete National Award material given his cinematic choices, commitment to performance and ability of conveying a strong message to society. Yes, we know Aamir doesn’t really bother about awards and has mostly refrained himself from all the glitz and blitz of modern day events. However, National Awards have a different value for everybody involved with the film industry in any which way.

While Aamir has twice won Filmfare Best Actor award besides winning the critics choice award for Rang De Basanti, he has never really been able to win a National Award in the actor’s category. Having started with the successful Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Aamir has thrice found National Awards recognition, all honors have come through different means though.

While he won the National Award special mention for his debut performance and Raakh, he also won Best Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment for Lagaan and Best Film on Family Welfare for Taare Zameen Par (Aamir being the producer of the former.)

Despite all of that, it’s not as if Aamir hasn’t done credible work enough to earn him a Best Actor National Award. Let’s face it, if Saif can win it for Hum Tum, so can everybody else. As we closely take a look at Aamir Khan’s career, we pick 5 of his performances where we think he could have won a National Award:

Rangeela

One of Aamir’s most challenging roles in his career, Rangeela had him portray a character we hadn’t seen a ‘type’ of before. His painstakingly close picture of Mumbai Taporis went very well with the masses but unfortunately didn’t win him an award. Aamir’s performance as Munna in Rangeela was quite worthy of a National Award if put in perspective.

Sarfarosh

Sarfarosh wasn’t just an ordinary patriotic cinematic product coming out of Indian cinema in the 90’s. The film was quite real to the problems the country had been facing back then and at no point of time did it glorify heroism. A struggling Aamir who has to fight hard within the system to deal with the grievous issue of terrorism was quite a shaking performance at the time. If at all he deserved some acclaim for the role, a National Award was not something too much to ask for.

Lagaan

While a lot has already been said and written about the film as a whole, Aamir’s performance in the film somehow got lost in the larger than life propping up of the movie. While he did win a Filmfare Award for Best Actor that year, a National Award too could have been on the cards. Displaying a wonderful performance colored with courage, vulnerability, devotion and resistance, Aamir as Bhuvan was the heart and soul of the drama.

Rang De Basanti

Despite RDB being an ensemble cast, Aamir’s impact on the film was a lot more than we think. His well-researched, carefully performed character of DJ was quite exemplary in the larger prospect. Also carrying out a sensitive performance like Chandrashekhar Azad, Aamir completely enhanced the mood of the film in multiple proportions. For the kind of product he was in along with his noteworthy performance, a National Award could have been a worthy recognition.

PK

While a lot of people have a certain kind of reservations about his performance in PK, Aamir did put his heart out while acting this extremely complex character. As a Bhojpuri speaking alien who didn’t blink once throughout the film carrying out multiple emotions, Aamir was very impactful in the film. He made his audience shed a tear with him with his emotional and sympathetic performance and a National Award could have well honored him for his perfection.

No Khan out of the three has ever won a National Award. With all of them experimenting with their projects in the next few years, who do you think can be the first to get this big honor? As for Aamir, he’s been kind of unlucky, hasn’t he?