Awards go to those who attend the ceremony: Ajay Devgn

Ajay Devgn has joined Aamir Khan in staying away from award ceremonies. Most functions just market themselves by wooing celebrities and awarding the nominees who agree to attend the events, says the actor.

“I don’t attend award ceremonies. The facts with award ceremonies are that you are called saying, ‘Please come for the awards, we are giving you the award’; when you don’t go, they say they had to give it to someone else. They also have to market it; they also have to sell their awards. So it’s a problem for them,” Ajay told IANS in an interview.

“They have to give awards to whoever attends the function. So they keep their options open,” said the 41-year-old who was won the National Award twice for “Zakhm” and “The Legend of Bhagat Singh”.

“It feels good when you receive an award. But there are small, small things that I have to keep in mind. If a couple of awards ceremonies are genuine and you attend them then you have to attend all the other award ceremonies. So it’s better that I don’t attend any of them,” he said.

He feels something similar happens while selecting movies for the Oscars. The actor maintains that Indian films have the potential to grab Oscars, provided the right film is sent for it.

“We can make it to the Oscars, but there are lots of politics behind it also. There are many big films, small films but they are good films, which are not sent to the Oscars. But I don’t understand why they cheat their own country.

” ‘Devdas’ and ‘Bhagat Singh..’ were made in the same year. Whose probability of winning an Oscar is more, a film on a drunkard or a freedom fighter?…Over the years many small good films, some of them by first time directors, have been made, but no one sends those films for Oscars,” Ajay said.

This year he has been nominated for all the three awards – Big Star Entertainment Award, Star Screen Awards and Apsara Awards – in the best actor category for the crime thriller “Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai”, but didn’t get any.

Ajay is nominated in the best actor category in the upcoming 56th Idea Filmfare Awards 2010 to be held Jan 29.