Filmfare Awards 2018 Nominations: Secret Superstar Leads With 9 Nominations

The 63rd edition of the Filmfare Awards will be held on 20th January 2018 in Mumbai. Filmfare Awards are amongst the oldest film awards in India and are awarded to films, artists and crews for excelling in their respective fields. The first edition was held in 1954 and now the Awards are often referred to as India's version of Academy Awards aka the Oscars.

The 63rd edition will be hosted by the ever charming Shah Rukh Khan who has also hosted previous editions successfully. He will be joined by Karan Johar and Parineeti Chopra as co-hosts. Filmfare announced its list of nominees for 2018 ceremony and the nomination list has surprising snubs and unexpected nominees. Here are the notable snubs of nominations:

Best Film: In its list of nominees for the best film, the jury members have included Badrinath Ki Dulhania rather than acclaimed films like Lipstick Under My Burkha and Newton. While Badrinath Ki Dulhania was a commercial success it surely doesn't deserve to be on the list of best films of 2018 when compared to Newton or Lipstick Under My Burkha.

Best Director: Once again, Amit V Masurkar for Newton, Alankrita Shrivastava for Lipstick Under my Burkha or R.S. Prasanna for Shubh Mangal Savdhan should have been nominated instead of Shashank Khaitan or Advaid Chandan.

Best Actor (Male): Rajkummar Rao has the most phenomenal year where his performances as a led in Trapped and Newton were universally acclaimed still he didn't get a nomination in the lead actor category.

Best Actor (Female): Swara Bhaskar was simply outstanding in Anarkali Of Aarah but it seems like the jury missed on her. She should have been nominated in place of Alia Bhatt.

Best Supporting Actor (Male): Varun Sharma was a rage in Fukrey Returns and while Secret Superstar was a good film, Aamir Khan's character was kind of overbearing and Varun should have been nominated.

Best Playback Singer (Male): It would come as a shock to many but Arijit Singh hasn't been nominated for Hawayein from Jab Harry Met Sejal.

The Good Side: Irrespective of the ban on Pakistani Actors, the jury selected Saba Qamar's amazing performance as Meeta in Hindi Medium in the best actor (female) category and it showed that artists shouldn't be subjected to such bans. 2017 was also a year where there were very few good performances from the leading ladies and Saba's performance deserved to be nominated.

Nominating small-budgeted and content-oriented films like Bareilly Ki Barfi, Secret Superstar, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha and Hindi Medium also showed maturity on the jury's behalf and it's probably the first time when a leading award function has recognized content on a large scale.

Secret Superstar leads with 9 nominations while Bareilly Ki Barfi has been nominated in 8 categories and Badrinath Ki Dulhania is the only film which has been nominated in 4 major categories (best actor male & female, best film and best director).