Akshay Kumar National Award row: After Raveena, Saif Ali Khan shares his opinion on controversy

Saif Ali Khan has opened up on the much hyped controversy over Akshay Kumar winning a National award for his movie 'Rustom' and said that if he can win the prestigious award for 'Hum Tum', it's fine for Akki to bag one for 'Rustom'. Interestingly, Saif's statement came days after there was a debate about Akshay's name being announced as Best Actor for National Film Award. 

It was reported that some celebs suggested foul play in the judgement. However, Saif came with a smart reply and said, “There has been an uproar about Akshay's win at the National Awards. Someone joked if I can get National Award for 'Hum Tum', it's okay for Akshay Kumar to win. A lot of people actually think I won for ‘Omkara’, not ‘Hum Tum’. I take a little offence when people joke about my National Award win.”

He further added, “People have been saying that I should give my award back but I don’t agree with that. If someone is unhappy with the institution and wants to return his or her award, it’s great. Maybe it was a publicity thing… I honestly don’t know.”

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“We are still developing and finding our identity… Everything can’t be judged by the same standard. We have modernized due to television and fashion coming in but in our thinking, we are still years behind the west. They also went through their times of insane nationalism. They finally came out of it and look more sorted today. So, maybe we also need to go through this. Maybe, we need to stir things up. People need to express their opinions and then get into trouble for that. And one day eventually, find a level. And we are doing that right now,” Saif told an entertainment portal.

Earlier, Raveena Tandon too had voiced her opinion in Akki's favour. She stated that people who didn't win an award often create a controversy.

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Interestingly, this will be Akshay's first national award and he is quite elated about it. In fact, he even ruled out any possibility of a foul play in jury's judgement and stated he got the award for utmost honesty and didn't pay for it.

On the work front, Akshay Kumar is currently busy with wife Twinkle Khanna's production 'Padman' also starring Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte.