Mohanlal and Shah Rukh Khan are two of the biggest superstars of their respective film industries in India. While Mohanlal dominates the Malayalam cinema, SRK has been the king in Bollywood. Recently, Malayalam film director Sibi Malayil revealed that he was asked to select SRK over Mohanlal for the National Film Awards back in 2009.
Sibi Malayil talks about the National Award incident
According to News18, Malayalam film director Sibi Malayil revealed that Mohanlal’s drama film Paradesi was allegedly excluded from the 2009 National Film Awards. He also stated that he was asked by the chairman to pick Shah Rukh Khan over Mohanlal for the Best Actor Award. Sibi said that he advocated for Best Actor, Best Director, Best Lyrics and Best Singer Awards for the Mohanlal starrer. However, the jury only bestowed them with an award in the makeup department.
He said, “Cinematographer Sunny Joseph and I were the Malayalees on the jury. We wanted Paradesi to get an award at least for director, costume, lyricist and singer, and strongly advocated for it.”
Sibi also revealed Sujatha was also nominated in the Best Singer category for the song Thattam Pidichu but she was pushed aside. He stated that the director, who was a north Indian, told him about Shreya Ghoshal’s songs from Jab We Met for the Best Singer category. “When he learned it was for Sujatha, he asked if they had not heard Shreya Ghoshal’s song from Jab We Met. He took the initiative and brought a video cassette, displayed it, and altered the award,” Sibi revealed.
About Paradesi
Paradesi is a 2007 Malayalam drama film written and directed by P.T. Kunju Muhammed. It stars Swetha Menon, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Padmapriya Janakiraman, Jagathy Sreekumar, and Siddique. The film follows the story of Indian people who left the country after partition seeking jobs in Arabia. They eventually reach Pakistan, but things go awry once they return to India holding a Pakistani passport. Paradesi met with a positive critical response.
Shah Rukh Khan and Mohanlal’s work front
Shah Rukh Khan is currently basking in the glorious success of his recent release Dunki. The Rajkumar Hirani directorial is a comedy-drama that also stars Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal, Boman Irani, and Anil Grover among others. It is based on the concept of Donkey flight which refers to illegally entering any country.
The film was released in December and met with critical and commercial success. Dunki marks the first collaboration between SRK and Hirani. Interestingly, the director had offered his first film Munna Bhai MBBS to SRK but it did not work out around that time. Finally, after so many years, the duo collaborated on the film which has turned out to be successful.
Mohanlal, on the other hand, was recently seen playing the role of an advocate in the Malayalam film Neru. It turned out to be a critical and box office success. He has several interesting films in the lineup including Malaikottai Vaaliban, Barroz: Guardian of D’Gama’s Treasure, Vrushabha, Ram: Part 1, Part 2 and L2: Empuraan. All these films are from different genres and are highly anticipated by his fans.
Shah Rukh Khan has never won a National Award in his long career. Mohanlal has been bestowed by it twice in his long and celebrated career.
