Jury chairman Rahul Rawail posted that the Malayalam superstar’s fans have not taken the award snub for ‘Peranbu’ lightly

‘Is there any real competition for Mammootty?’ or ‘Who all are vying for the best actor award with Mammootty?’: many of the media reports carried similar titles before the 66th National Film Awards were declared on Friday.

With all the critical acclaim he garnered playing the istraught dad of a differently-abled child in Peranbu, the actor was considered a strong contender for the top honour. But the likes od Ayushmann Khurrana and Vicky Kaushal sharing the Best Actor award hasn’t really gone down well with fans of the Malayalam superstar, withmany of them going berserk and making all kinds of comments the social networking sites. They even created hashtags like #justiceformammootty and #peranmbudeservesit, questioning the decision of the jury, with a lot of ‘hate mail’ also sent directly to the jury behind the 2019 National Film Awards.

Irked by the online attacks, jury chairman Rahul Rawail posted online that he had sent a message directly to Mammootty asking him to stop his fans from continuing their protests.

“Message sent by me, as Chairman of the Jury of 66th NFA, to Mammooty: ‘Hi Mr.Mammoty. There has been a lot of ‘hate mail’, that too extremely nasty, that I have been receiving from your fans, or so called fan clubs, as to why you were not given the National Award as Best Actor for the film ‘Peranbu’. Let me set the record straight: Firstly, NOBODY HAS THE RIGHT TO QUESTION A JURY DECISION. Secondly, your film ‘Peranbu’ had been REJECTED by the Regional Panel and hence did not contend in the Central Panel. Your fans and/or devotees should stop fighting a lost cause. Never question a Jury! (sic)” he posted online.

Mr.Rawail soon received a reply from the actor apologising for the behaviour of his fans, which was also shared by the jury chairman: “Reply from Mammootty: ‘Sorry sir. I have no knowledge about it. Still I apologize for what had happened’.”

After Mammootty’s response, many persons expressed their resentment over ‘the biased decision’ wondering how the likes of Peranbu and Pariyerum Perumal missed the list of awarded films. Fans even created trolls mocking jury criteria which they alleged was based on religion, leaving comments like ‘A citizen can question even Hon. India President. Worst jury in the history of Indian National Film Awards’. Some went a step ahead and published the entire filmography of Rawail, asking him about his contributions to Indian cinema compared to the three-time National-Award-winning actor.