Once India’s highest recognition for cinematic excellence, the National Awards are now at the center of debate. The August 1 declaration nonsense that the honor was swept away by their roots, who were once socially aware or dominated by Indie-style cinema, to celebrate big-tick blockbusters. From Allu Arjun’s ‘Pushpa’ (2021) to Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Jawan’ (2023), some cinefiles argue that Shift marked an inclination towards commercial, questioning whether the awards were losing his original vision.

Why SRK was not recognized for performance in SWAD (2004) or Chak D! India (2007), which many people believe was more qualified? Is the definition of ‘independent cinema’ as wrong? And, the most important thing is whether the national awards still lift the same weight in an era where every appreciation is dissected online? India today spoke to industry veterans to reply.

Filmmaker-actor Viveck Vaswani addressed the commercial aspect, saying that every film is commercial as it needs to sell tickets. He said, “Is it not commercial? Production needs to pay his team, and how can he do it without making a commercial film? It is not one, and until anyone is paying until it is paying. It is not even a piece of art, because hundreds of crafts come together to make a film. So there is no question that we are moving towards it, because commercialization is always around.”

The filmmaker also suggested that the word ‘independent film’ is often misunderstood: “Any person like Rakesh Roshan is the biggest independent filmmaker for me, because he never sold deals with any studio for his negative or his film.”

Nominating Sunil Darshan as another example, to catch his film rights. Vaswani said, “So for me, Anurag Kashyap is not an independent filmmaker because most of his films are funded by Viacom 18 or 20th century Fox. They are studio products. The content of a product does not create independent or non-independent. No return, and you make a film for your personal enjoyment, it is independent in the true sense.”

Two -time prize winner Pawan Malhotra also weighed, given that a national award does not necessarily change things, professionally. The industry may receive some more respect, but it does not automatically translate into more work.

For her, however, both of her win came as a surprise. Malhotra was awarded the Special Jury Award for ‘Fakir’ in 1998 and was the best supportive actor for ‘Fauja’ in 2023. While Manyata cannot change the curriculum of an artist’s career, he believes that it has a deep meaning for any nation-love person.

“Just the fact that I will take the award from the President of my country, there was a special feeling. I remember when I won it for the first time, I kept thinking what I would tell him when I reached the stage (Ker Narayanan was the President at that time). I was looking at an army officer standing behind him, and immediately, I greet him. I say a lot,” said a lot of meaning.

Vaswani also questioned whether this award was given by the nation, maintain relevance today. He said, “The moment we enter social media space, every actor, filmmaker, prize, every small piece of material is analyzed by threadbare. And so, everything has lost its relevance because there is a lot of noise. I don’t know what the truth is now. Get it.

Shah Rukh shared the National Film Award 2023 for Best Actor with actor Vikrant Massey for Vardhu Vinod Chopra’s ’12th Fail’.