What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of ‘Oscar’ or ‘Golden Globes’? Prestige. It’s not the same when it comes to desi counterparts like the 60-year-old ‘Filmfare Awards’ or the much younger ‘Life OK Screen Awards’ (21-year-old). ‘Oscar’, ‘Golden Globes’ and ‘Filmfare’ have one thing in common: a long legacy spanning more than half a century. Oscar turns 87 in 2015, while the Golden Globes celebrate 72 years. The Hollywood Awards are known for their fair and transparent process in selecting winners. More than 6,000 elite members of the Academy vote for the Oscars to select the annual winners. As for the Golden Globes, it is made up of 93 prominent journalists from around the world, members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), on the voting panel. Looking back, we can see that these two major awards went smoothly without much controversy questioning their legitimacy and the selection process. Of course, a calculated campaign can still sway Oscar and Golden Globe voters – up to a point (as we saw in the case of Shakespeare In Love in 1999 and Crash in 2015)! Those little hiccups aside, these awards remain relevant and prestigious. The same cannot be said for the Bollywood awards. Especially since we have a dozen new awards shows, prestige is the last thing they worry about.

Where are the Bollywood awards headed?

Well, it’s not heading to a nice place, that’s for sure! Controversy and corruption make it difficult for award programs to remain relevant and meaningful. Speaking of Filmfare awards, it is a popular award. Filmfare magazine subscribers decide the winners by voting (however, they introduced critics’ pick awards for some major categories to make it less boring). As we all know, audiences are not always the best judge when it comes to movie quality, acting, and technical prowess. As the Oscars realized, the people who work in the business are the best at judging the merit of a movie or an artist. Now it is too late for the Filmfare Awards to change formats. So, we won’t harass them for that matter. However, they can at least be honest and fair in the way they select the popular awards. If you look closer, despite offering good performances and historical films, Aamir Khan and his films always missed the Filmfare Awards. The same can be said for Ajay Devgn. To refresh your memory, both Aamir Khan and Ajay Devgn spoke out against the politics behind the awards. Aamir Khan boycotted all the award shows (of course, except the National Awards and the Oscars). Over and over again, we hear accusations that these awards are “fixed.” It’s not just the stars, fans have also spoken out against the dirty image behind the awards.

The award shows have become a huge televised event in India involving a lot of money. So TRP matters. Who brings TRP? Big stars, who else! Don’t think it’s any different in Hollywood. ABC, which has a contract to broadcast the Oscars through 2020, goes to all kinds of circuses to increase the Oscars TRP (forgot Ellen Degenerator’s selfie trick during last year’s Oscars?) However, In Hollywood the big stars do not ask for money or favors to attend these awards. If they are nominated, they will definitely appear on the red carpet and graciously cheer on the winner despite their bitter defeats. They understand the fact that maintaining a healthy rewards ecosystem is a must for quality assurance. In Bollywood, we hear all kinds of stories about the crazy demands of the stars when it comes to attending awards. ” If you’re not going to give me an award and then don’t bother sending an invite, ‘this seems to be the motto of most big stars, according to various reports. This leads to fun prize categories. For the ‘best actor’ category, some award shows give up to 5 different awards (best actor in a thriller, best actor in a drama, best actor in a comedy, etc.). They then come up with very creative award categories to accommodate a demanding actor! There was a recent controversy regarding the music awards, where Honey Singh received the award for best musical director ignoring AR Rahman and Amit Trivedi.

Bollywood fans have been arguing about the futility of the Bollywood awards on social media like Twitter and Facebook. It seems that everyone except the organizers of the awards show is aware of this growing criticism. Speaking of the Oscars, we have something similar in Bollywood. IIFA (Indian International Film Awards), which was born in 2000, is a worldwide Bollywood awards show where nominations and winners are selected by industry peers. The glossy award function is usually held at an international venue outside of India. However, they continue to honor the less deserved winners. Plus, they aren’t far behind when it comes to fun categories.

In short, the Bollywood awards scene is a big mess right now. This can be largely attributed to the fact that the industry is disorganized to the core. They do not have a unit, they do not have functional organizations for the actors and technicians. If they had, it would have been easier for them to hold their own awards show modeled after the Oscars. In that case, a trusted outside agency (an agency called PricewaterhouseCoopers has the responsibility to tabulate Oscar votes) can handle the voting process to avoid politics and corruption. In addition, it would force the stars to attend the awards without asking for favors. Such a move could clean up the system. But, who will do that? The main players disagree all the time. They fight over everything and their cold wars and camp systems are infamous in Bollywood. So it would be too much to expect them to do something about it.

But who will rattle the cat?

That is the most important question. Until we find an answer, we’ll have to deal with the bullshit in the name of the awards!