Dadasaheb Phalke Award, a case of mistaken identity: Gajendra Chauhan unfazed by flak

Actor Gajendra Chauhan occupied a spot on the trending list after he shared a picture of himself holding a trophy and wrote, “Honoured. I have been awarded Legend Dada Saheb Phalke award 2021 in Mumbai for my work in Indian Film Industry. Thanks to my well wishers.”

This was enough to send netizens into a frenzy, as they confused with the Dada Saheb Phalke award, bestowed by the Indian government, and ended up trolling him. The latter is India’s highest honour in cinema and presented at the National Film Awards.

“What is Gajendra Chauhan doing these days? He is winning awards,” wrote one user, while another stated, “Sorry, though I have followed you for long but let me tell, you are not eligible for this.”

“What? This is Crazy, why did you get this ? What have you done ? Sharam ho toh return kardo,” read a tweet while other stated, “Either it’s a parody award or … they’ve reduced the award to a parody!”.

All this left Chauhan wondering about the starting point of the confusion as according to him, he had “clearly mentioned” the name of the award in his tweet.

“If people had read it carefully, this confusion wouldn’t have happened. Now, I can’t go around to everyone explaining and clearing their confusion. I don’t know why people are connecting it with the award given by the government. If they had a doubt, they could have asked instead of calling it fake or duplicate,” Chauhan rues, slamming the needless outcry.

When it comes to the criticism coming his way, Chauhan doesn’t take it very seriously.

“Sab ki apni apni soch hai. Whether an award if big or small, it’s a way to appreciate your work. Mene apne ghar pe toh banaya nahi hai na award. It recognises all the work that I’ve done, including Mahabharat, and pushes me to do better,” he says.

Among those questioning the credibility of the award Chauhan received, was filmmaker Munish Bhardwaj, who is also amazed at the case of mistaken identity. He even tweeted to clear the mix-up: “Incredibly smart people falling for that Gajju tweet about some bulls**t award he got.”

Talking to us, Bharwaj says, “So many people mistook it for the main honour, and started slamming him, saying he doesn’t deserve the award, which I agree with. Gajendra Chauhan doesn’t deserve the national honour. But my tweet was for the people who didn’t know the difference between the awards. It was like the joke is on you, if you think he got the country’s highest honour. It is a pity that you don’t know about the honour.”