Priyanka and Shahid in stills from Mary Kom and Haider respectively
As 2014 morphs into 2015, Bollywood gears up for award season, which has a crop of outstanding performances jostling for attention. These are the favourites in the trophy race.
Deepika Padukone cleaned up the Best Actress awards last season, her own competition with multiple nominations for Chennai Express, Ram-Leela and Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani. This time, however, its likely going to Mary Kom star Priyanka Chopra's turn to shrine with Queen's Kangana Ranaut and Highway/2 States actress Alia Bhatt looking to spoil the party.
Kangana Ranaut, whose performance in Queen was hailed with delight by critics, might not be put out if she doesn't win. The outspoken actress has been publicly less than welcoming towards awards, saying at a press conference: "Main awards sey isliye mana kar rahi hoon kyonki itne sare awards hote hain. 15-16 awards. Aur har award mein agar aap ko paanch se chey ghante baithna pade, aur usme bhi hair aur makeup karwane ka time add karo, toh yeh pura hisab bahut mehenga padta hai. Agar ek award hota toh it's ok, but there are so many of them."
"Aisa nahin hai ki mujhe lagta hai ki yeh awards genuine nahin hain. Bahut genuine hain. Mujhe jabhi bhi award mila hai, chahe woh Gangster ke liye ho ya Fashion ke liye, mujhe yeh lagta hai ki award genuine hai par har ek ko khush karne ke liye koi na koi award milta hai. Kisi ko smile ke liye, kisi ko hair ke liye.Then I feel why are you even sitting here. At each stage, there are priorities which you have and awards are not my priority," she added.
Priyanka, on the other hand, pulls no punches about wanting the accolades badly and is already dreading the possibility of defeat. The actress said in an interview, "The only thing I am dreading is the five minutes between the nominations and the announcement. Because sometimes when people build it up so much and I don't get it, you're stabbed in your heart."
So, where does that leave Tabu, whose luminous turn in Haider far outstripped most others this year? If India's award shows were less populist, most Best Actress trophies would likely have Tabu's name on them. As they are not, there's a special category called Critics' Choice to honour those actors who really did outperform others, celebrity status notwithstanding. At which point we should also mention Dimple Kapadia's work in Finding Fanny.
For the boys though, it's pretty much a one-horse race being led by Tabu's
Haider co-star Shahid Kapoor. While nominated in the popular categories along with the Khans, Shahid seems to be a strong contender for the top spot, with Highway actor Randeep Hooda at his heels.
Hrithik Roshan could also be nominated for Bang Bang, Naseeruddin Shah should be up for Finding Fanny but Shahid's biggest competition could turn out to be Aamir Khan, always a treat to watch, in the upcoming PK.
As we know only too well, however, Aamir and awards in India get along less than warmly.
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