Raveena Tandon, who turned 50 last week, found herself in the vortex of an ugly controversy when in 2001 she was awarded the National award for her performance as an abused wife in Kalpana Lajmi in Daman. Raveena’s uncle small-time actor Mac Mohan was part of the jury.
The all-powerful actress-danseuse Vyjayanthimala who headed the National award jury that year stoutly defended Raveena’s selection for the honour.
In a throwback interview with Zoom, Vyjayanthimala had said, “I’ve seen all the performances. What the jury members and I felt about Raveena’s performance was, that it was totally unexpected from her. Daman completely changes her glamorous image. She has dared to play an abused wife and the mother of a grownup daughter. When at the end she assumes the personality of Goddess Durga, we thought Raveena had outdone herself.”
Vyjayanthimala criticised the direction. “I must also add that Kalpana Lajmi, in spite of being a renowned director, hasn’t done full justice to the theme. The film was quite shoddy. The cinematography and music do not rise to the occasion. Raveena carries off the role remarkably in spite of these drawbacks. She had to get credit for that. As for Tabu in Astitwa and Karisma Kapoor in Zubeida, they are both acknowledged artistes. They both had powerful roles, dialogues, scripts, and music in Astitwa and Zubeida. But give this girl (Raveena) the credit for working against several odds. Why shouldn’t we give her the award? I’m totally in sympathy with my jury members.”
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Vyjayanthimala further said, “If the awards went to Anil Kapoor and Raveena it was because they deserved it, and not because I was part of a conspiracy to make them win. Agreeing with the majority’s decision doesn’t make me hand-in-glove with anyone. I don’t know Raveena. I’ve never met her. I didn’t even know MacMohan was related to her. All this has nothing to do with me. I went by pure merit. I like Anil’s and Raveena’s performance immensely. I also loved the film Bharathi, its recreation of the period was so vivid. I’m glad it has won the award for best regional film. I‘ve been true to my conscience, and I stand by all the awards. If some of the jury members weren’t qualified for their jobs, who am I to comment on that? They were all selected by the Directorate of the festival. I’ve done full justice to two fine artists like Anil Kapoor and Raveena Tandon.”
Reacting to the resignation of three jury members the legendary actress and danseuse commented, “Every year, the National Awards get into some controversy or the other. This time the controversy is over the selection of Anil Kapoor and Raveena Tandon for best actor and actress.”
Describing some jury members as people who had little to do with cinema, Vyjayanthimala said, “As for the two gentlemen (Pradip Kishen and Shashi Anand) who walked out hours before we were to decide the winners, right from the start they distanced themselves from the other jurists. There was no interaction between them and the rest of the jury. The two thought they were right about everything. Hence, if there was any groupism within the jury, it was those two who were responsible for it. I, on my part as the head of the jury, tried to make all the jury members as comfortable as possible. All I wanted was that we choose the right films for the awards in the best interests of the country.”
“Since there were four panels it wasn’t possible for every jury member to see every film. Those two (Kishen and Anand) insisted that the entire jury should boycott the films that they had seen and rejected. How was that possible? The other jury members and I refused to comply with this unfair demand. Some jury members rejected some other films initially. So it wasn’t just Daman and Pukar which were recalled. In all, nine films were recalled for viewing by the jury. I never objected to films being recalled for viewing. I saw that as a healthy occasion for the revaluation of films. Still, those two members insisted on acting uppity, as though they thought no end of themselves. It seems they had made up their minds even before we voted for the winners. When a majority vote arrived at the winners, these two jury members staged a walkout. We pleaded with them to stay on. They refused. Then the festival director requested them for a voice of dissent. For 45 minutes after their walkout, we were at a complete loss as to what we should do next—continue or scrap the awards selections. We were held to ransom by these two jury members. We had to get the I&B minister Sushma Swaraj’s opinion on the imbroglio. She said I had to make a decision since I was the chairperson. After consulting the other members we decided to go ahead with the voting without the four abstaining jury members. We couldn’t wait indefinitely while these protestors made up their minds. As it is, we lost three precious days because of their tendency to raise objections to every decision arrived at by other jury members.”
About Raveena Tandon’s Maama(maternal uncle) MacMohan being on the jury, Vyjayanthimala clarifies, “Jury members have the right to abstain from voting. Likewise, MacMohan abstained from voting for Raveena Tandon. Then what’s wrong with his being Raveena’s uncle? Also let me add, it’s very difficult for any creative organisation functioning on a national level, to go purely by the book.”