After Allu Arjun won the National Award for Best Actor, Shoojit Sircar said Vicky Kaushal deserved to win.
Sardar Udham, a film directed by Shoojit Sircar and starring Vicky Kaushal, won five awards at the 69th National Film Awards. It also won the National Award for Best Hindi Film. However, it seems that the director is disappointed he feels Vicky Kaushal deserved Best Actor Award which is now won by Allu Arjun for Pushpa: The Rise.
While speaking to Mid-Day, Shoojit Sircar said, “Vicky undoubtedly deserved the Best Actor award. The way he transformed into Sardar Udham is commendable. We started with the Jallianwala Bagh sequence. The first shot was of Udham picking up [the dead] bodies, feeling the weight and pain. The set was witnessing that nightmare. That set the tone of the film. Vicky couldn’t sleep for nights, and carried that disturbance throughout other parts of the movie.”
He further talked about Irrfan Khan, who was supposed to work in his film, and said he felt guilty that he couldn’t work with the late actor. He stated, “There is some kind of guilt in me that I did not work with him on this. He had also told me to move on. Every day, deep inside me, it hurts. I got the award, but he wasn’t here. The vacuum is still there. It’s not just Sardar Udham, I will dedicate whatever I can to him.”
Allu Arjun created history recently when he became the first Telugu actor to win the National Film Award for Best Actor for his incredible performance as Pushpa Raj in the 2021 blockbuster Pushpa: The Rise. But it wasn’t Allu Arjun, but Mahesh Babu who was the director Sukumar’s first choice for the film.
After Allu Arjun’s win, an old tweet of Mahesh Babu went viral on X (previously known as Twitter) where he announced his decision to quit the film, has gone viral. On March 4, 2019, Babu tweeted, “Due to creative differences, my film with Sukumar is not happening. I wish him all the best on the announcement of his new project. Respect always for a filmmaker par excellence. 1 Nenokkadine will remain as a cult classic. Enjoyed every moment working on that film.”
