64th National Film Awards controversy: AR Murugadoss, Dr Biju, other celebs react over jury's decisions

Since the declaration of 64th National Film Awards winners on April 7, it has become one of the hot topics of discussion with a majority of netizens dissatisfied with the jury's choice of the best performers of 2016.

Check National Award Full winners' list

Apart from the audience, a few celebrities have come forward to criticise the selection process of the jury, headed by filmmaker Priyadarshan. Now, Tamil director AR Murugadoss has stated that the decisions were clearly biased and partial.

Must read: Did NFA jury chairman Priyadarshan unfairly reward his buddies Akshay Kumar and Mohanlal?

"#NationalAwards Can clearly witness the influence & partiality of people in jury, it's biased, [sic]," the 7am Arivu filmmaker posted on his Twitter page. The social media post of Murugadoss has, however, strengthened the accusations made by netizens against Priyadarshan, who is said to have selected Akshay Kumar and Mohanlal for Best Actor and Special Jury Awards this year as they are his friends.

However, when Priyadarshan was questioned based on the allegations, he asked why is he was being crucified as Akshay was given the award for his notable performances in two films — Airlift and Rustom.

"I will answer it in a simple way. When Ramesh Sippy was jury head Amitabh Bachchan won. When Prakash Jha was head of jury, Ajay Devgn won. So, none questioned at that time. So, why all these questions are cropping up today," the director told PTI.

Meanwhile, via his Facebook post, Kaadu Pookunna Neram director Dr Biju also criticised the jury for adding a new category of award for stunt choreographer, which was bagged by Peter Hein for Mohanlal's action thriller Pulimurugan. But the statement of Dr Biju has irked many netizens, who have been posting abusive comments on his social media post.

Check out the reaction of other celebrities on the declaration of National Awards 2017:

Alphonse Puthren

Would like to see our National Film Awards equivalent to Oscars. I believe Indian films have more man power and more films releasing than in Hollywood. And when I mean equivalent it doesn't mean changing the Hollywood to Bollywood,Tollywood,Mollywood,Kollywood etc. And when I went to Thiruvananthapuram/Kochi, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh or Mumbai first I thought there might be a studio named Bollywood studios, Tollywood studios or etc.....No...there is no studio named Bollywood like in Hollywood...it's an imitation and I guess these names don't suit the Indian films at all. Nor does Mollywood suit Malayalam films nor does Tollywood suit Telugu films and nor does kollywood suit Tamizh films. However the 'Mango' tries it can't be an 'Orange' (Keeping this in head we will try to be a Mango rather than naming ourselves 'Irange'. from Alphonso Mango :D

Vivek Ranjit

Akshay Kumar? Seriously?