National Awards Chairman Priyadarshan CLARIFIES if Akshay Kumar is in his next!

Priyadarshan has been at the heart of a controversy after the winners for the National Awards were declared last Friday. He has been slammed because of Akshay Kumar winning the National Award for Best Actor. Some have claimed that it’s not only because of his close proximity to the Bhool Bhulaiyya director, but also because Akshay has signed him up for his home production for a couple of films. Laughing off the rumours, Priyadarshan says, “I am not doing any film with Akshay. The only two films that I am in talks with actors for, are with Abhishek Bachchan for Bachchan Singh (working title) which is a pure commercial entertainer written by Rumi Jaffrey and Ajay Devgn for the Hindi remake of Oppam. I don’t know why people feel that I can solely influence a jury of 12 to take such an important call. The jury members are artists from all the country and various regional movies. I am just the Chairperson and it was a unanimous decision to vote for Akshay.”