Akshay Kumar reacts to allegations of getting National Award in exchange for money

Akshay Kumar winning the National Award for his performance in Rustom was followed by mixed reactions. While many congratulated him for being honoured with the Best Actor award for the movie, many opined that the jury was biased. Now, Akshay has himself spoke about the controversy.

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As soon as Akshay was conferred the National Award for Rustom, many started saying that Akshay's friendship with Priyadarshan, who was the jury head, made him win the award. The 49-year-old actor has now said that he has won the award with honesty, and did not do anything immoral.

"Itna keh sakta hun mai ki ye award bhi maine imandari se jita hai. Maine aaj tak cheating nahi ki. Neither have I ever made a call to anyone to win an award nor have given money or done favours for it," Akshay was quoted as saying by Catch News.

Some had alleged that Priyadarshan gave the National Award to Akshay as he is willing to make the Hindi remake of Malayalam movie Oppam with the actor. However, a major section of people on social media opined that Aamir Khan deserved the award more for Dangal than Akshay.

While it was first announced that Akshay won the award for just Rustom, later Priyadarshan had said that he was honoured for his performance in Rustom as well as Airlift.

"Akshay has won the Best Actor award for both Airlift and Rustom. For technical reasons, only Rustom is mentioned in the list of awardees. But he has given contrasting and extremely sensitive performances in both Airlift and Rustom, and we thought it was only fair to honour him for both," Priyadarshan had said.