Assamese playback singer Nahid Afrin has come out to clarify her stand on the State Film awards controversy saying that she was unaware that she had received the award for the Best Playback Singer at the 8th Assam State Film Awards for a song that she did not sing.
Taking to social media, Nahid released a video where she clarified her stand on the entire matter.
In the video, the singer narrated the entire sequence of events leading to her being presented with the award on Monday evening. “A few days ago, the results for the Assam State Film Awards were declared and after about a few minutes, I received a call from a member of the jury board informing me that I had won the award. After the results were announced, a list was also circulated and I received it too. My name and the name of the film were mentioned; Best Female Playback Singer Award Nahid Afrin for the film Nijanor Gaan.”
“After that I started receiving congratulatory calls and messages. In fact, the organizing committee of the Assam State Film Awards also called me to inform me about the details of the function. As I had received so many calls from them inviting me to accept the award, I decided to go and receive it. At that time, I had no idea about which song the award was for as I knew that I had sung a song in the movie and I was nominated for that song,” mentioned Nahid Afrin.
“Suddenly today, the matter came up on social media where several people have mentioned that when Nahid Afrin was receiving the award, did she not see the name of the song for which the award was being handed out. See, first of all, when the anchors announced my name, I was conscious about myself and what they were saying and I missed the name of the song on the display board. I was not expecting there to be a mix-up regarding the name of the song and hence, I did not notice it. If the anchors had mentioned the name of the song while they were announcing my name, I would have definitely clarified it on stage that it was indeed not my song but sung by Rupjyoti Devi alongside Zubeen Garg,” she said in the video.
Nahid Afrin also mentioned, “I just want to say that the people have picked up on the mistake and I do not hold anything against anyone, but I will have to say that I am not responsible in the mix-up in anyway. I would like any further clarification in this regard to come from the jury board and members of the jury who made the selections. And, if it comes out that the award was not meant for me, then I would be happy to return it to the rightful winner as I have already won the same award before and I am satisfied with it.”
“I thing that an award does not describe my talent or knowledge, but my own work does and I will continue to strive with it,” concluded Nahid Afrin.
