New Delhi: Kannada filmmaker Hemant Rao has shared a post on social media expressing his anger on IIFA (IIFA 2024). He attended the IIFA Utsavam, but did not get the award. Now the director has targeted IIFA by writing a long post.

IIFA Utsavam was held in Abu Dhabi on 27 September , where stars from Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam film industries were honored for their excellent work. Instead of Hemanth Rao, the Best Director award was given to Kaateera director Tharun Kishore Sudhir.

IIFA was called insulting

Now Hemant Rao has shared a post on social media. Venting his anger on IIFA, the director said, "The whole IIFA experience was a huge inconvenience and extremely humiliating. I have been in this industry for more than a decade and this was not my first experience at an award show. It has always been the case that the winners are brought by plane and hosted for the event. For example, I sat till 3 am and then I realized that there are no awards. The same thing happened with my music director Charan Raj."

Director upset over not being mentioned in IIFA

The director further wrote, "It's your award. You can give it to whoever you want. It's your choice. I haven't won many awards and I don't lose sleep over it, so these are not that sour grapes. If all the other nominees were invited and one of them emerged as the winner, I wouldn't have bothered. Also, this year's format was just to give awards. Nominees weren't even mentioned."

IIFA needs talent

Hemanth Rao wrote, "Maybe it took you and your team some time to realise this. Your awards ceremonies run on the talent presented on your stage and not the other way round. I don't need your awards to enjoy the best work in the world. Next time you will need me on your stage and I am sure it will happen. Take your award and keep it where the sun doesn't shine."

Finally, Hemant also said that he has no problem with Sudhir winning the award. His only resentment is due to lack of transparency. He also called IIFA a waste of time.