One of the most acclaimed actors in the industry, Naseeruddin Shah, has won multiple awards for his performances over the years. In an interview, he revealed that he doesn’t take these awards seriously and uses his Filmfare awards as door handles for his washrooms.
Naseeruddin is the recipient for three National Awards for his work in ‘Paar,’ ‘Sparsh,’ and ‘Iqbaal.’ He has also won three Filmfare Awards for his performances in ‘Akrosh,’ ‘Chakra,’ and ‘Masoom.’ In the interview, the actor opened up about his thoughts on awards, stating that they are an outcome of lobbying in the industry.
When asked if there is any truth in the rumours that uses awards as door handles in his house, Naseeruddin laughed and added, “Any actor who has put their life and effort into portraying a role is a good actor. If you just pick one person from the lot and say that ‘this is the best actor of the year,’ how’s it fair? I am not proud of those awards. I did not even go collect the last two awards I received. So, when I built a farmhouse I decided to put these awards there. Whoever goes to the washroom will get two awards each as the handles are made of the Filmfare awards.”
Naseeruddin added, “I don’t find any value in these trophies. I was happy when I received the initial ones. But then, trophies started piling up around me. Sooner or later I understood that these awards are a result of lobbying. One is receiving these awards not necessarily because of their merit. So I started leaving them behind.”
“After that, when I received Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, it reminded me of my deceased father who used to always be worried about my job and said things like ‘if you do this useless work, you will become a fool’. So, when I went to Rashtrapati Bhavan to collect the awards, I looked up and asked my dad if he was seeing all this… He was… and I am sure he was happy… I was happy to receive those awards. But I can’t stand these competitive awards.”
Naseeruddin was last seen in the second season of ‘Taj: Reign of Revenge.’ It also stars Aditi Rao Hydari, Rahul Bose, Sandhya Mridul, and Zarina Wahab.