There is no such thing as public voting at award shows: Vasay Chaudhry

In case you’ve been conflicted about a certain award show’s decision to stick by the nomination and consequent victory of a certain actor because of it being a result of independent polling, despite the allegations levelled against them, then Vasay Chaudhry has something to say: “There’s no such thing as public voting at award shows.”

In an interview with director Rafay Rashdi on Sunday, the newly appointed vice-chairman of the Punjab Film Censor Board was asked about the public’s role in nominating and propelling an actor to win at award shows. The Jawani Phir Nahi Ani actor, based on his experience at an award show jury, alleged, “I’ve been nominated a couple of times and been part of a jury for two years. The time I’m talking about is before social media and I’ve been clear about one thing; there’s no such thing as public voting. It’s the biggest black-hole you can jump into. There’s no such thing as public voting because only the jury can decide.”

He called the whole process a “not-so-Pakistani yet a Pakistani invention” which is “all rubbish”. Comparing it to the Oscars, Chaudhry added, “It’s like the Oscars, if Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated, he would’ve gotten an award years ago because no fan club is bigger than his and he won just now, like two or three years ago. He should’ve won one for his film Titanic. Tom Cruise would’ve won an Oscar every single time because he has a fan club of his own as well. Same goes for Brad Pitt. Conclusion: there’s no such thing as online viewing or polling.”

Chaudhry went on to call online polling a “stupid concept” and stated that the power of fans is limited to propelling actors to stardom by watching them and talking about them. “Fans can help their stars break viewing records by watching their films again and again at cinemas or otherwise. But that’s that. At awards, it will not matter if I have two fans or Fawad Khan has 20 million fans. Our skill-set will be prioritised and presented to a jury which will then decide whether an actor, director, writer should win.”

The London Nahi Jaunga asserted that “it’s a big glitch in the Pakistani award system because they do this to increase interaction for their award show to expand. It’s ridiculous.” He then alleged that the whole formula has been adapted by Lux Style Awards. “This concept has been adapted by Lux Style Awards (LSA). It happens in India too. In 1996 or a time after that when Shah Rukh Khan won a lot of awards. But at the same time came Manoj Bajpayee’s Satya that did really well, on his level. That’s where they understood that Bajpayee can act and came critic awards, Best Actor Critic and Best Actor Popular. This way they kept the actor’s honour as well as the popularity factor.”

Detailing on the Pakistani adaptation of the concept, Chaudhry noted, “Our version of that is that the Best Actor award is bagged by the one who gets the most votes. It’s not elections, it’s about judging someone based on the skills, by veterans of the industry. There’s no such thing as viewers choice because there’s only one Best Actor award. Not Best Actor Critic or Best Actor Choice.”

It is, however, pertinent to mention here that the Lux Style Awards has separate categories for critics in both the Best Actor Male and Female award categories.

“You’re not in a cinema hall, you’re not in the box office. That’s separate. An examination hall where someone like veterans or experienced people are judging you, it’s about your skills not about your fans or perhaps even your star power or anything of that sort. This is a way to make someone happy because you don’t want to break their heart that this actor or actress doesn’t leave without an award,” added the actor.

Many on social media have taken issue with the LSA Viewers’ Choice category since Feroze Khan bagged an award in the same last week. His nomination sparked a furor online prior to the event and his victory has not been taken lightly by those calling for his ban.

Khan has been accused of domestic violence by his former wife Aliza Sultan. Though he has denied what he termed “baseless, malicious and untruthful” accusations, the jury is still out on the matter and the LSA have garnered their fair share of criticism for not “intervening” in what they believe their Viewers’ Choice category represents – an “independent and transparent voting process.”

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