MM Sreelekha, a member of the jury for the film National Awards, reacts to the criticism that filmmakers lobbied to win the awards. Tollywood is revelling in its cache of National Awards (including ‘Best Actor’ for the first time). But jury members have been receiving flak for passing over some quality films from various industries. Several films which won acclaim on OTT both for their concepts and the quality of execution were missing from the Awards list, leading to speculation that filmmakers had lobbied for the coveted prizes.
Composer and singer MM Sreelekha, who was the jury member of National Awards committee, 2021, has been accused on social media with showing bias towards certain films. She happens to be the cousin of director S.S. Rajamouli and composer M.M. Keeravani, whose RRR won six awards.
Lashing out at the critics, she said, “If Telugu films don’t win National Awards, people will criticise us for that. If the films do get awards, then there are accusations of lobbying. Where will this end? National Awards are given on the basis of the merits of the film and actors. The award winners need to be appreciated for their hard work,” she said.
Some of the parameters for a National Awards include quality of the film, story, cast performance, technicalities (filmmaking) music, camerawork, etc. “Box office collections are never a parameter for giving an award,” Sreelekha clarified, stating that the jury send in their recommendations to the Chairman of the National Awards committee, and the recommendations had to be justified to other members of the jury and the Chairman. “Just because I am Rajamouli’s or Keeravani’s cousin, it doesn’t mean that I can easily give them national awards by being in the jury,” she stressed, adding, “I have never worked with them professionally either.”
Denying that there is any lobbying for awards, Sreelekha shared that much brainstorming goes into picking an award winner. She also revealed that she was given the responsibility of being on the jury because of her body of work (she has composed music for more than 70 films in various languages apart from singing over 4000 songs).
When the awards for RRR and for Allu Arjun as ‘Best Actor’ for Pushpa were announced, Sreelekha said she felt vindicated.
“Allu Arjun did a commendable job in Pushpa. We felt his character design and arc were strong and he delivered a stellar performance. His energy levels were consistent throughout,” Sreelekha said, and pointed out that RRR had already got several awards globally.
