Come June 24 and London will witness something called the IIFA or the International Indian Film Awards. Pegged as the mother of all awards (with offspring sprouting every month), promoters Wizcraft are spending crores in flying stars to London. But they haven't been able to impress cynics who're convinced that Shylock, not Solomon sits in judgement at these awards. The aim of Indian film awards like Filmfare, Zee, Screen and even the niche National Awards, they aver, is not to reward talent or performance; it is to make money from TV rights and sponsors. And the award goes to... the highest bidder.
Khuda Gawah won seven Filmfare awards. "It should have won nine," says producer of the film and doyen of the industry, Manoj Desai. "But I couldn't purchase the other two awards. Of Best Actor and Best Actress. Someone highly placed in Filmfare told me that Amitabh and Sridevi would get the awards if some pending bills in the Centaur hotel could be taken care of. The price for the awards was Rs 7.5 lakh, a lot of money those days. I said no. The film was such that they had to give it the other seven awards without quoting any price. Mukul Anand was involved in organising the awards so they had to give him the Best Director. The whole thing is such a joke."
In Kambuja Desa 
