The 2025 Filmfare Awards, held last weekend in Ahmedabad, have stirred up controversy, not just for their winners but for who they seemingly overlooked. While Laapataa Ladies emerged as the biggest winner of the night, bagging the Best Film award along with 12 other honours, filmmaker Sudipto Sen, who directed the National Award-winning The Kerala Story, has publicly criticised the awards, calling them a spectacle with little regard for true cinema.
Major Wins at Filmfare 2025
The star-studded event celebrated some of the biggest names in Hindi cinema:
Best Film: Laapataa Ladies
Best Actor (Male): Shared by Abhishek Bachchan (I Want to Talk) and Kartik Aaryan (Chandu Champion)
Best Actress: Alia Bhatt (Jigra)
While many celebrated the recognition of Laapataa Ladies, praised for its socially relevant storytelling, Sen expressed strong disappointment over what he sees as the industry’s biased choices.
Sudipto Sen’s Instagram Post
Taking to Instagram, Sudipto Sen issued a strongly worded statement condemning the Filmfare jury and the event as a whole. In his post, he wrote:
“This year Filmfare is truly an expose’ of Indian “nouvelle vague”… A blatantly plagiarized film… A film which is a tutorial of brutality and a film which did not survive at box office for more than 72-hours… took away most of the crowns…”
He further accused the awards of ignoring what he believes were the best works of 2024, hinting at a bias against The Kerala Story, which won Best Director and Best Cinematography at the National Film Awards last month.
Rejecting Bollywood’s “Fake Tapestry”
In his strongly worded message, Sen expressed relief at not being part of what he called a superficial and sycophantic film industry circle:
“We are spared from faking smiles -faking comradier and Most importantly, not indulging in any sycophancy. In the end I am happy that we are saved from hobnobbing with this tamasha in the name of cinema in Mumbai and clicking selfies in Cannes.”
He also took a jab at media and cinema journalism, writing in the caption:
“I never expect anything great from any Indian cinema establishment, particularly when it is media or cinema journalism. They are mostly enamored by the glamor and rich-world of the stars, exactly the way people from villages and small cities gather in front of Mr. Bachchan or SRK’ shouse. They actually have ZERO contribution towards Indian cinema, cinema art – contrary to the way world media does for world cinemas.”
The Kerala Story – National Award
The Kerala Story was one of the most talked-about films of 2024. Based on the alleged radicalisation and forced conversion of women from Kerala who were then recruited into ISIS, the film sparked both widespread debate and significant box office success. Despite intense backlash from some quarters, it was recognised by the National Film Awards, with Sudipto Sen winning Best Director and the film also bagging the Best Cinematography award.
