The IIFA Awards 2024, held in Abu Dhabi, has sparked controversy after Kannada filmmaker Hemanth Rao, who feels that the film personalities there were treated with disrespect by the organizers. The IIFA Utsavam, a program exclusively dedicated to the South Indian industries of Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada, left them disappointed.
Hemanth spoke his mind out through an Instagram post, elaborating on how he and the music director Charan Raj had to wait for a long time and then they were told that they would not be receiving the awards they were promised.
He described his experience as “a massive inconvenience and extremely disrespectful.” He added, “For context, I was sat till 3 AM in the morning only to realize there was no award. The same happened to my Music Director: Charan Raj.”
The Andhadhun screenwriter also targeted the way awards are conducted. He pointed out that no nominees were mentioned during the presentation. “It’s your award. You can give it to whoever you want to. That’s your choice!! I haven’t won MANY awards and haven’t lost sleep over it, so these grapes aren’t sour,” he said. However, what he felt was wrong was the lack of transparency.
Actor Siddharth, known for his verbal protests about the handling of artists in trade circles, responded to Hemanth’s post by commenting, “Sorry to know you and Charan had to go through this… disrespect towards artists at the hands of these middlemen will not end… but props to you for speaking out.”
