The Biggest Bollywood Controversies Around National Film Awards

National Film Awards are one of the most prestigious Award ceremonies in India which are given out every year to the best of Indian Cinema. The Indian Government administers the Awards and the first ceremony took place in 1954. Best films and performances from different regions and languages are also awarded. The President of India presents the awards to the winners.

Bollywood is a leading winner at the National Awards as well. Prominent personalities from the industry, the actors, directors, producers, writers, singers or composers have won a National Award and made Bollywood proud. But the National Awards have also courted some major controversies as well. Here are 6 big controversies from the National Film Awards:

Kirron Kher's win in 2000: Kirron Kher won the National Award for Best Actress in 2000 for her role in Bengali film Bariwali. Her voice was dubbed by a Bengali actress names Rita Koiral while the producers told everyone that it was Kirron's voice.

Black winning Best Film in 2006: One of the jury members went to court and alleged that the Awards were fixed and Black did not qualify for the best film as it was adapted from an English film. 

Akshay Kumar's win in 2017: Akshay Kumar the best actor award for Rustom and many people thought that the film or his performance didn't deserve the award as there were other actors with better performances.

Ajay Devgn's win in 2003: The actor was given the best actor award for The Legend of Bhagat Singh but director Adoor Gopalakrishnan was not satisfied as he said that the jury was headed by Prakash Jha who was directing Ajay Devgn in Gangaajal. 

Saif Ali Khan's win in 2005: The actor won the Award for best actor in 2005 but it soon erupted in a controversy. Many people thought that Saif was favored by his mother Sharmila Tagore who was the chief of Censor Board back then and some actors performed better than Saif that year. 

Raveena Tandon & Anil Kapoor's win in 2001: Anil Kapoor won the best actor award for his role in Pukar while Raveena Tandon won the best actress award for Daman. Many jury members resigned later on as they alleged that the system was full of corruption and the winners were pre-decided.