National Film Awards: Vivek Agnihotri crops Karan Johar from group pic amid feud reports; see viral post

Hours after the 69th National Film Awards ceremony, director Vivek Agnihotri took to social media to share a picture in which the winners posed with President Droupadi Murmu and Anurag Thakur, the Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting.

In the picture were Vivek and his wife, Pallavi Joshi, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, R Madhavan, Waheeda Rahman, SS Rajamouli, Allu Arjun, Kriti Sanon and Shreya Ghoshal, among others. However, he Karan Johar was cropped out from the frame.

He attended the 69th National Film Awards ceremony to accept the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Film on National Integration for ‘The Kashmir Files’.

Karan was also at the ceremony to accept the Special Jury Award for ‘Shershaah’, a film he had produced.

When Karan accepted his award, a video showed Vivek seemingly rolling his eyes.

Besides the cropped picture, Vivek also shared photos of Pallavi posing with Waheeda, Shreya, Alia and Kriti, and a selfie with Waheeda. Sharing the photo, Vivek wrote, ‘Such talent. Women power. #NationalAwards.’

Vivek Agnihotri has publicly expressed his dislike towards Karan Johar’s style of films. In August this year, Vivek accused Karan and Shah Rukh Khan of ‘damaging India’s cultural fabric’.

Speaking with DNA, the filmmaker said, ‘After the advent of Amitabh Bachchan as a superstar – not the one from Deewar but one from Shehanshah – the cinema after that never told real stories. Especially Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan’s cinema, that has actually damaged the cultural fabric of India in a very disastrous way. So, I felt it was important to tell real, honest stories.’

Karan and Shah Rukh have not reacted to his statements.

Vivek’s work front

Vivek Agnihotri’s last directorial ‘The Vaccine War’ was released in theatres on September 28, 2023. The film starred Nana Patekar and Pallavi Joshi.

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