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'Why didn't they give the jury award to Hrithik instead of Manoj Bajpai?'

Last updated on: August 16, 2004 20:25 IST

Rituparno Ghosh Though Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh (seen, right) is thrilled by the sizeable portion of National Awards going to fellow-Bengalis, he is disappointed by the raw deal meted out to two of his favourite films -- Vishal Bharadwaj's Maqbool and Kamal Haasan's Virumaandi.

"I'm thrilled that my brother Indranil Ghosh won the National Award for art direction [for Choker Bali]. My mother always wanted both her sons to win awards! But I'm disappointed at the way Maqbool and Virumaandi have been treated," says the director, who won National Awards for Best Film for Unishe April (1994) and Asookh (1999). Choker Bali won the award this year for Best Bengali film.

"I'm happy for all the Bengali National awardees. We're quite a clan this year," he adds.

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Goutam Ghose, who won the Best Director Award for Abar Aranye, has left Ghosh with mixed feelings. "It is a sequel to Satyajit Ray's Aranyer Din Ratri. That's one of the 10 best films I've ever seen. I think it is impossible for any sequel to match up to Ray's film. I think Abar Aranye could have been more coherent. I liked Goutam Ghose's last film Dekha better," he says.

Tell him that Sharmila Tagore won the Best Supporting Actress Award for Abar Aranye and Ghosh laughs. "She's good in Abar Aranye. But I wish she had won the award for my film Shubho Mahurat. She was better in my film."

Ghosh will start his next Bengali film, Antar Mahal, starring Abhishek Bachchan, Soha Ali Khan, Jackie Shroff and Rupa Ganguly next month. He actually wanted to name the film Kaya or Rai Bahadur, but could not get those titles.

Meanwhile, his first Hindi film Raincoat, starring Aishwarya Rai and Ajay Devgan, has been selected as the inaugural film at the London Film Festival. It will be released globally on October 21.

Pankaj Kapur in Maqbool Vishal Bharadwaj's Maqbool got only a few awards. Bharadwaj says, "I think Maqbool deserved more. But thank God, Pankaj Kapur [seen, right] got the Best Supporting Actor award. To not reward Pankaj for his performance in Maqbool would have been unforgivable."

In Bollywood, there is widespread shock at Hrithik Roshan not bagging the Best Actor award for his outstanding performance in KoiMil Gaya.

Says a major filmmaker. "I haven't seen the Tamil film for which Vikram has won the Best Actor award [Pithamagan]. But it is impossible to believe he was better than Hrithik in KoiMil Gaya. A performance like that comes once in a blue moon. Why didn't they give the special jury award to Hrithik instead of Manoj Bajpai for Pinjar?"

Subhash K Jha