Why hasn't Aamir Khan received even one National award for best actor? Will Dangal reverse his fortune?

Aamir Khan has won one National award for acting but not best actor. He won the National award special mention award for QSQT and Raakh. In the beginning of his career he largely did romantic films. The films where he gave commendable dramatic performances include-

Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar (1992)- Mithun Chakraborty won the National award for Tahader Katha. Tahader Katha was more socially relevant film based on the disillusionmemt of a freedom fighter after independence.

Rangeela (1995)- Rajit Kapoor won the National award for playing Mahatma Gandhi in the film The Making of Mahatma directed by Shyam Benegal. The film was an important piece historically so prefered for the award.

Sarfarosh and 1947 Earth (1999)- This time Aamir made socially relevant films but Mohanlal gave a masterclass performance in Vanaprastham. One of the greatest performances in Indian cinema truly deserved the National award.

Lagaan and Dil Chahta hai (2001)- Very curuous to see Murali winning the award for Neythukaran, a left oriented politically charged film, that too during NDA rule and that too at a time when the National award jury was blamed to be politically biased in giving awards (the controversy happened in 1999, 2000 as well as 2002, 2004). I havent seen the film so can’t really comment how good or bad the film was.

Rang De Basanti (2006)- Soumitra Chaterjee after being overlooked so many times and after him rejecting the consolatory National award in 2000, he won the National award for Best Actor finally after so many decades of working with greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema. Anyways Rang De Basanti was an ensemble film with no defined lead actor.

3 Idiots (2009)- Amitabh Bachchan won the Best Actor for Paa. Ranbir Kapoor was also in consideration for Wake up Sid and Rocket Singh. But the steongest contender was Mamooty for Kutty Srank but he lost by 1 vote to Amitabh.

Dangal (2016)- One of the worst choices made in a year. We had so many great options. I was rooting for Manoj Bajapyee to win for Aligarh. We had Aamir for Dangal, Srk for Fan, Sushant for Dhoni all Hindi films (not to forget the films of all other languages) that were way better than Akshay Kumar for a cringe film like Rustom. I wont say that Aamir should have won the award. Dangal was a very nice film but purely as performance i would rate Manoj Bajapyee way above and i also as a performance SRK in Fan was really good.

What are people's opinions on Nana Patekar's acting? Why has he not been able to win the National Award for best Actor despite being nominated several times?

 Nana Patekar is a terrific actor even though he has not been celebrated enough. He belong to the category of the likes of Naseer, Om, Pankaj Kapoor though he has remained in the confines of commercial cinema, he has given some really brilliant performances right since Gaman to Ankush to Parinda, Krantiveer, Agnisakshi, Ab tak Chappan, Apharan, Welcome, Khamoshi, Deol, Natsmarat etc.

But the question is completely incorrect. Nana Patekar has won 3 National awards including one for Best Actor. His 3 National awards were -

1. Best Supporting Actor for Parinda (1989)- He also won the Filmfare award for Best Supporting Actor.
2. Best Actor for Krantiveer (1994)- Won every best actor award including the Filmfare for Best actor
3. Best Supporting Actor for Agni Sakshi (1996)- He was nominated for Best Actor Filmfare for this performance as well.

The other performances where he delivered award winning performance were Natsmarat (a role that has been immortalised by many actors in Marathi theatre and cinema). When asked about his views about “Natsamrat”, Irrfan said, “It was an outstanding film. It (film) should have won National Award for Nana ji (Nana Patekar), but I was not there in the jury.

Also he gave a commendable performance in Khamoshi: The Musical where he played a mute person and acted through his eyes.

But if you truly like Nana Patekar I would like to recommend one of his most underrated film and performance that not many people have seen. The film is called Diksha (1990). It is an art house film where Nana Patekar plays a lower caste person living near an ashram. It is a brilliant satire on the corrupt practices of the priest and Nana has acted with minimal dialogues.

Which film did Raveena Tandon win the National Award for her role?

 Raveena Tandon won the National Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film Daman (2001). The film was directed by Kalpana Lajmi. She won the award even before the theatrical release of the film.

Raveena plays the character of Durga Saikia, a battered wife struggling against an abusive husband (Sayaji Shinde).

The film also broke her onscreen glamourous image. Her portrayal was recognised for her authencity and depth capturing the intense fear and emotional trauma of an abused woman.

Raveena Tandon did this film free of charge. Juhi Chawla was the first choice for this role. Singer Shaan too made his debut as an actor with this film (previously did a special appearance in a song in Tarkieb).

The film transferred Raveena's image from a commercial “glamour girl” to a critically acclaimed serious actress, prompting her to pick up more challenging, socially relevant projects such as Shool and Satta.

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