Spilling the beans on the rampant nepotism within the Bollywood film industry, rookie actor Abhay Deol said that awards in the film industry are often granted not on the basis of merit but return favours or score points.

“Talk to any actor ‘off record’ and he will tell you, you either go because your winning an award or you go because you’re getting paid, otherwise you don’t go,” Deol who paid a visit to the 43rd International Film Festival of India said during an interactive session with the press.

“In that case pay me, and I’ll perform. If you tell me you’re awarding talent then no. It’s just an exercise in appeasing those you’ve worked with or appeasing those you want to work with,” Deol said candidly without taking names.

He, however did not shy away from referring to his 2009 film ‘Dev D’ which raised eyebrows because it did not win any awards. “I was promoting Road movie at the time the filmfare awards were happening and no one wanted to talk to me about Road. The entire press wanted to know why I wasn’t selected for an award. And I said it was a family fare, if your part of the family then you will get it. And I stick by that,” Deol said.

“The validation that I might be doing something right is the fact that I didn’t get the award,” he joked. The film received huge positive response both from critics as well as movie-goers, but was not nominated for any awards.