Aamir Khan is known to never attend award functions, he has repeatedly voiced his skepticism about their credibility and choosing to stay away from them for decades. But did you know that in the early stage of his career, Aamir did think of awards as a source of validation. He had spoken about it in an old interview where he said that every actor aims at winning an award but at the moment, maybe he is not credible enough. In a throwback conversation with Lehren Retro, a younger Aamir openly shared his perspective on the matter. He admitted, “When it comes to awards, it’s the jury who decide it, and whatever they decide, it’s their prerogative. And every actor aims to win awards, I also strive for that, so perhaps in the future I might also win an award. I feel as an actor, I’m not really satisfied with whatever kind of performances I have given. There is still a lot of things I want to learn and explore. But yes, awards do act as a source of encouragement, it inspires you to do better work, you feel respected.”
At the same time, Aamir said that the love from the audience is as important as awards. “But respect doesn’t alone come from awards, it also comes from the fans who have seen your work. The fans I meet, and whenever they praise me, it gives me encouragement to keep doing good work. The letters I receive from fans, the calls I receive from them, I appreciate that, I always thankful to them for making my movies successful,” he said. But by the late 1990s, Aamir had firmly altered his approach, taking a conscious decision to boycott commercial film awards altogether. Decades later, even after the monumental success of ‘Dangal’, he remained unshaken in that belief. When asked if the film’s accolades might change his stance, his response was not sugar-coated. Commercial film awards are of no value to me. For me, Dangal has already got its biggest award which is the love of the audience. The feeling with which audience have loved it and accepted it is my biggest award. We made the film for the audience and that is our biggest award.” He also added that he doesn’t think that his opinion on award shows will ever change now. On work front, Aamir was last seen in ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’.
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