Award shows are always a topic of great contention, both among audiences and artists themselves. Every awards season, they get berated for picking favourites or ignoring someone’s work entirely. Award shows have a responsibility to represent and reward the hard work of hundreds and thousands of creatives. Sometimes, there is simply not enough room to nominate everyone but some of these problems really are of their own making.
In the past, we have had countless stars come forward and denounce award shows or expose their lack of credibility, which just fuels the flames that are already burning strongly. During all this, we have Ahsan Khan who appeared in an interview with Maliha Rehman. The Udaari star was asked about his opinion on award shows, and he had a rather positive approach. Let’s discuss.
Ahsan’s Opinion On Award Shows
Maliha asked the Fraud star if these events just award artists who are in the audience, which is a conspiracy theory that has been circulating award shows for a while. To this, Khan replied that he had received an award in the past at an event he couldn’t attend hence debunking this claim from his own end.
He was then also asked if he held any resentment over not being nominated for the latest Lux Style Awards this year. Once again, Ahsan had a positive attitude about it, saying that there’s not much to say or feel angry about. “Two years ago, I was unable to attend an IPPA award ceremony held in Norway. Despite my absence, I was honoured with an award for my work in Alif. I recall Maya Ali announcing during the event that I was not present. I even have a video of that moment. I had to explain to HUM TV that I wouldn’t be able to make it since I wasn’t well, since they had already arranged my tickets and I was also doing a small segment in those awards. Yet, they presented me with the award.”
The Chakkar star also finds award shows to be a fun experience, getting to socialise and meet fans.
He then clarified that his opinions are his own and he is only speaking from his own experiences with awards, not wanting to invalidate anyone else’s personal qualms about them. It was still rather refreshing seeing an actor not go down the same path of scolding the entire industry and feeling hurt for not being nominated like we have seen countless times in the past.
Artists Who Spoke Against Awards
While Ahsan Khan had an unpopular opinion regarding awards, let’s look at some examples on the opposite end of the spectrum. We have even had entire TV channels boycotting awards as well, with ARY opting out of the Lux Style Awards in 2021 after major snubs in the past.
A year ago, Fawad Khan in an interview had a more intellectual take on the whole matter. The Humsafar star felt that the act of pitting actors against one another was the worst thing to do to them.
Veteran actor Shabbir Jan appeared on Nadir Ali’s podcast and claimed that award shows nowadays are like distributing sweets to those they love. He also said that he was content with all his PTV awards from back in the day and does not find the new ones authentic.
For the latest Lux Style Awards 2023, we had stars such as Farhan Saeed and Sajal Ali come forward and express their disappointment in them. Saeed took to Instagram and criticized the awards for lacking integrity.
“I don’t say this for myself but for anyone who deserves a fair chance at winning for their hard work at any platform, I say this to encourage ppl who aspire to join our industry! I say this to keep people’s faith in us intact!” he wrote.
Bin Roye star Armeena Rana Khan also weighed in on this in the comments and did not have any kind things to say.
Yikes! Talk about not mincing one’s words.
In a recent talk show appearance, Sonya Hussyn was questioned about her absence from this year’s Lux Style Awards. Her response was candid and straightforward,
“I don’t attend the award functions. I don’t know why, but I don’t like to go to the awards; it is useless to attend the awards.”
She went on to share her perspective on those who choose to attend award functions, stating, “Those who are attending the award shows must be getting awards, and those who are going without receiving any award will be going because of their love for attending shows or something like that.”
Last year, actor Ali Abbas spoke out about the controversial incident surrounding the Pakistan International Screen Awards (PISA), labelling the award as ‘rigged.’ Titli star revealed that he was initially informed that he had clinched the Best Supporting Actor accolade, only to witness actor Ahmed Ali Butt receiving it at the actual event.
During an interview with a local news channel, the Titli actor admitted his confusion about the incident, expressing his belief that such occurrences cast a shadow on the credibility of awards and similar shows. “It’s a matter of self-respect,” he shared. In a veiled critique of award ceremonies in general, he remarked, “Award shows will keep happening year after year, and no one remembers why or how someone got an award. However, [PISA] lost its credibility. It is more about your conscience.”
Allegedly, PISA organizers offered compensation to Abbas for the incident. Nevertheless, he firmly asserts that “an award can have no compensation, and one can only feel happy about an award when there are deserving people in the pool.”
The jury behind these awards has a lot of introspection to do. Neither the audience nor the talent are happy with the awarding criteria, so something must change. We can only hope that we see more integrity from award shows and a healthier competition takes shape soon.
