12 January,2009 06:49 AM IST | | Subhash K Jha
Anupam Kher, who plays one of the leads in Neeraj Pandey's A Wednesday received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor award in the recently announced Annual Star Screen Awards, alongside Jimmy Sheirgill and Aamir Bashir who played his subordinates in the film.
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To add insult to injury, Nasseruddin Shah has been nominated in the Best Actor category for the same film.
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Equal footing!
The actor says, "I have the highest regard for Naseer and his acting. He deserves every single award on the planet but I'm very sure that my role in A Wednesday is not that of a supporting actor.
It's the lead. I normally get the kind of roles that go straight into the Best Supporting or the Best Comic Actor categories.
But when I finally do a lead, you can't relegate it to the supporting status. Being true to my conscience I feel it's better not to go into something I don't believe in to reflect the truth."
Conscience forbids
Protests Anupam, "I am not against the awards or their purveyors. But I've my own opinion about my role in A Wednesday.
My conscience doesn't allow me to sit at the function and watch another performance be nominated as the lead. I've nothing against Naseer's performance in A Wednesday.
But to put me and him in separate categories for the performances in the same film is like nominating Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole in Becket (1964) as the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor that year."
Neeraj reacts...
A Wednesday director Neeraj Pandey reacts, "To nominate Anupam in the Best Supporting Actor category is a very strange thing to do.
Though I'm very happy that Naseer has been nominated for the Best Actor, Anupam is also the film's leading man.
Both were given top billing in A Wednesday." Neeraj is particularly offended because Anupam is a dear friend. "To see his performance being downplayed hurts me."
