Allu Arjun’s victory as the first Telugu actor to win Best Actor at the 69th National Film Awards delighted his fans.
However, the North Indian intellectuals argued that Vicky Kaushal deserved the honor for his spine-chilling performance in Sardar Udham.
The cinephiles from the North highlighted Vicky’s impactful portrayal of Sardar Uddham Singh and criticized awarding a hyper-masculine role like Pushpa over a freedom fighter’s story. Some viewed this as a snub to meaningful filmmaking.
In the Telugu version, Allu Arjun’s makeover as a smuggler speaking in the Chittoor dialect was highly impactful, but in the Hindi version, that dialect factor was missing, so the North audience might have felt that his performance is nothing groundbreaking as he was speaking in regular Tapori Hindi.
The debate is quite reasonable, but it must be understood that no performance created an impact like Allu Arjun’s Pushpa. His walk, his dialogues, his dances, and mannerisma have become a part of pop culture.
