January 20th, 2009
Last Wednesday, Akshay Kumar gave away his Star Screen award to Aamir Khan. It is now revealed that the gesture was not out of generosity or nobility, but out of anger.
Initially, the actor was to perform at the award function but the organisers couldn't pay him his asking price (Rs 2.5 crore), so he backed out. These days, award functions are all about star attendance.
A-list actors only show up if they are winning awards, or performing at the function. Since performing was out, and the organisers wanted Akki at the event, they hinted that he'd win the Best Actor award.
According to an insider, "The actor promised to be present at the event, and flew back from the world premieres of CC2C on Tuesday morning.
On the day of the award, he sent across a written speech and asked for it to be played on the teleprompter. He was all set to collect his Best Actor award that evening.
To his horror, his name was anno-unced for the Most Popular Actor, and not the Best Actor category as promised."
Akki felt slighted but there was no way he couldn't have gone up on stage to collect his trophy without creating a flurry at the event.
So he went on stage, made his speech, announced that Aamir deserved the award for Ghajini, and walked off from the stage without collecting the trophy.
He announced Aamir's name because he wasn't present at the function. It was quick (and smart) thinking on his part.
After his seemingly generous act on stage, the actor walked off from the event, without waiting for the other winners to be announced.
Adds a source, "The award for the Best actor went to Hrithik Roshan for Jodhaa Akbar. At the time when the organisers told Akshay he'd win the coveted award, they were given to believe that Hrithik wouldn't be able to attend the function.
But at the last minute the actor showed up, and they had to give him the award, as it would've been preposterous to give the award to Singh Is Kinng when the Jodhaa Akbar actor was nominated in the same category."
