Abhay Deol On Why He ‘Boycotted’ Awards After B-Town Lobbied Against Him During ZNMD

Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s untimely demise has sparked the debate about nepotism in Bollywood once again. A while back, Raveena Tandon opened up about the dark side of the industry and Anupam Kher talked about being bullied by the fraternity. And, now the latest actor to raise his voice against the injustice in B-town is Abhay Deol.

The actor claimed that when Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara released in 2011, several awards shows chose to “demote” him and Farhan Akhtar from main leads and nominate only Hrithik Roshan as “actor in a leading role,” reports News18. 

View this post on Instagram

“Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara”, released in 2011. Need to chant this title to myself everyday nowadays! Also a great watch when anxious or stressed. I would like to mention that almost all the award functions demoted me and Farhan from main leads, and nominated us as “supporting actors”. Hrithik and Katrina were nominated as “actors in a leading role”. So by the industry’s own logic, this was a film about a man and a woman falling in love, with the man supported by his friends for whatever decisions he takes. There are many covert and overt ways in which people in the industry lobby against you. In this case it was shamelessly overt. I of course boycotted the awards but Farhan was ok with it. #familyfareawards Very creative artwork @kalakkii

A post shared by Abhay Deol (@abhaydeol) on Jun 19, 2020 at 3:15am PDT

In his recent Insta post, Deol mentioned how according to the industry’s logic, ZNMD was just a love story instead of being a journey about life and friendship. He was quoted saying,  “I would like to mention that almost all the award functions demoted me and Farhan from main leads, and nominated us as “supporting actors”.”

“So by the industry’s own logic, this was a film about a man and a woman falling in love, with the man supported by his friends for whatever decisions he takes.”

View this post on Instagram

#whataretheodds that I’d play a role in the film I’ve produced? And what are the odds these accessories are mine?

A post shared by Abhay Deol (@abhaydeol) on May 7, 2020 at 4:28am PDT

Abhay subsequently boycotted award ceremonies, reports the Indian Express. He added, “There are many covert and overt ways in which people in the industry lobby against you. In this case, it was shamelessly overt. I of course boycotted the awards but Farhan was ok with it. #familyfareawards”.

ZNMD is one of my favorite movies and I feel it was a beautiful tale about the 3 friends. What do you think? Tell us!

Cover Image Source