Filmfare Awards 2017 will see the three Khans battle it out in the Best Actor category after 19 years

After a long spell of 18 years, the three Khans of the Hindi film industry- Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir - will go head to head in the Best Actor category of the Filmfare Awards. [caption id=“attachment_3197250” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. File Photo[/caption] Filmfare has announced the nominations for 10 of its various categories for the 62nd Filmfare Awards. However, what is a special attraction in the awards show this year, besides the introduction of the Best Short Film category, is the fact that Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan have been nominated in the Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male) category. This is only the third time that the three actors have been nominated in this category, this year for their respective performances in Maneesh Sharma’s Fan, Ali Abbas Zafar’s Sultan and Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal. They join Amitabh Bachchan, for Aniruddha Roy Choudhary’s Pink, Sushant Singh Rajput for Neeraj Pandey’s MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Shahid Kapoor for Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab and Ranbir Kapoor for Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. The last time the three Khans were nominated in the same year was two decades ago in 1999. Shah Rukh had managed to gain the upper hand then, bagging the coveted award for playing the boisterous-turned-balanced character of Rahul in Johar’s directorial debut Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. On the other hand, Aamir, who got nominated for Vikram Bhatt’s Ghulam, and Salman, who got nominated for Sohail Khan’s Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya, fell short. The only occasion prior to that when the three Khans were nominated was back in 1996 which also saw Shah Rukh gain the edge as he won the award for portraying the charming character of Raj in Aditya Chopra’s directorial debut Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Aamir was nominated for Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela whereas Salman made it to the nomination list for his performance in Rakesh Roshan’s Karan Arjun. Shah Rukh, who is hosting the award show this year, also boasts of winning the maximum number of Filmfare Awards in this category as he stands tied with Dilip Kumar at eight awards each. While another win will enable him to break the thespian’s record, it will be quite as task given the fierce competition from the other contenders including both Aamir and Salman who played retired Haryanavi wrestlers in their respective films last year. However, it is a well-known fact that Salman and Aamir do not hold awards shows in high regard. The former boycotted award shows long ago, in spite of winning two, for Raja Hindustani in 1997 and Lagaan in 2002 in the Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male) category. On the other hand, the latter only performs on the stage at awards shows but does not receive the award. Not that he has won (m)any. It is this notion of award shows being rigged that has enraged not only these two Khans but also cine goers this year. #filmfareawardsonsale has been trending on Twitter ever since the nominations list was announced. This is possibly because Akshay Kumar, who had three Rs 100 crore grossers this year, failed to make it even to the nomination list. His performance was appreciated across all quarters in Raja Krishna Menon’s Airlift and Tinu Suresh Desai’s Rustom. He also scored a blockbuster in Sajid-Farhad’s Houseful 3 but either of these three films was not nominated.