IIFA list upsets Madhur

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar is feeling bitter. While he is nominated in the Best Director category in the International Indian Film Academy Awards 2009, his film Fashion has not got a Best Picture nomination. He cannot figure out why.

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar is feeling bitter. While he is nominated in the Best Director category in the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards 2009, his film Fashion has not got a Best Picture nomination. He cannot figure out why.

“They’ve done this to me before,” says Madhur, who has made acclaimed films like Page 3 and Corporate. “My films have been denied popular awards right from Chandni Bar. So I’m neither hurt nor amused. I just wonder what it means.”

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Other directors in the Best Director list also have their films in the Best Picture category. So what is logic of leaving him out, Madhur asks. “If I’m one of the best directors of the year, isn’t my product automatically among the best films? But I’m sure they’ve their own rationale and I’m the last person to question it. Right now I’m too drained out from shooting Jail in the heat of Karjat,” he says.

Sabbas Joseph of IIFA counters, “Nominations are on the basis of industry votes. This year, 1,500 people cast their vote. The data are analysed by PricewaterhouseCoopers. It’s unfortunate that Fashion didn’t make to the Best Picture category.”
Jail, starring Neil Nitin Mukesh, is proving to be a tough film to shoot. “We have a doctor on standby, as anyone can suffer from sunstroke,” says Madhur.