Farhan Akhtar and Shahid Kapoor poke fun at censor board, award wapsi at IIFA 2016

From taking a dig at the CBFC, its chief Pahlaj Nihalani to poking fun at the last year’s ‘National Award returning’ controversy, actors Farhan Akhtar and Shahid Kapoor were in their element while hosting the 17th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards here.

During their opening monologue, the duo, who reprised their Pappu and Raju avatars from earlier IIFA editions, touched upon the row that saw many filmmakers returning their National awards to express solidarity with protesting FTII students.

“There were many controversies last year. The returning of award was one of them. So, this time we have decided that at IIFA we will have awards for returning of awards. The nominations are Farhan for ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, Riteish Deshmukh for ‘Bangistan’, Boman Irani for ‘3 Idiots’,” Shahid said.

To which Farhan quickly added, “Shahid Kapoor for ‘Haider’.” The point to be noted is none of the above mentioned got National Awards for these films.

The censor board and controversy go hand-in-hand these days and naturally, Shahid took potshots at the film body, which had major issues with his latest movie ‘Udta Punjab’.

When Farhan said, “Let’s talk about censor board’,” Shahid corrected him, saying, “It’s a certification board, whose work is ‘chhatna’ (selection) not ‘katna’ (omission).”

Taking a dig at Nihalani, the ‘R… Rajkumar’ star said, “And according to them (censor board), we from the film industry have no ‘Pahlaj and sharam’.”

The CBFC has often come down heavily on films for overuse of expletives and the ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ star had a term for it, “beepomania”.

He noted that if things go this way then very soon there will be only beeps in films in place of dialogues.

“This is beepomania and if things continue like this very soon we will only have beeps in the films.”

The controversies were not the only subject of laughs at the awards as Shahid cracked a few at himself as well.

Talking about his wedding last year that took everyone by surprise, the 35-year-old actor said, “The biggest controversy last year was that I got married!”

The ‘Kaminey’ star broke a million of hearts when the news of his engagement to a young Delhi University student, Mira Rajput, broke last June. Just a month later, Shahid tied the knot with Mira in an intimate ceremony in Delhi.

They are yet to celebrate their first anniversary and the couple are already expecting their first child.

Joking about Mira’s pregnancy, which made headlines, Shahid said, “Biggest Tehelka is that main baap banne wala hoon.”

Inputs from PTI

Also Check: PRIYANKA CHOPRA WITH SALMAN, DEEPIKA AND RANVEER DANCE ON ‘PINGA’ AT IIFA AWARDS 2016

Amod Pandit

Quiet, resonant, and creative, he can be seen immersed in his own world, and puts in his heart and soul into the one passion that he has, Bollywood. His line for survival? Feel happy to be a part of it.