The 70th Filmfare Awards was held on October 11, 2025, at the EKA Arena in Ahmedabad, but filmmaker Sudipto Sen considers it a farce and termed the event a “farce in the name of cinema” as Kiran Rao’s *Missing Ladies* dominated by winning a record 13 trophies, including Best Film and Best Director. The glittering ceremony, hosted by Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar and Manish Paul, celebrated the 2024 gems of Hindi cinema, but Sen’s scathing attack on Instagram accused the jury of valuing mediocrity over merit, and described his National Award-winning film *The Kerala Story* as an overlooked achievement.

*Missing Ladies*, a poignant tale of bride swapping highlighting patriarchal inconsistencies, won Best Screenplay, Best Dialogues, Best Music and Best Supporting Actor for Ravi Kishan and Chhaya Kadam, equaling *Gully Boy*’s 2019 awards. Alia Bhatt won the Best Actress award for her unique role in *Jigra*, her sixth and third consecutive win. Abhishek Bachchan (*I Want to Talk*) and Kartik Aaryan (*Chandu Champion*) shared the Best Actor (Male) award, while critics praised Rajkummar Rao (*Srikanth*) and Pratibha Raanta (*Missing Ladies*). Zeenat Aman was given this honor for lifetime achievement and Shyam Benegal was given this honor posthumously.

Sen’s anger reached its peak in a scathing post: “This year’s Filmfare is truly an expose of the Indian ‘new zeitgeist’… a film with blatant plagiarism… a film that is a lesson in cruelty and a film that did not last more than 72 hours at the box office… taking away most of the awards.” Amid claims of plagiarism from a 2017 short story, the veiled attack on *Missing Ladies* extended to industry sycophancy: “We got rid of the fake smiles… didn’t have to indulge in any sycophancy… glad we were saved from getting involved in this farce.” He mocked the media’s star obsession and compared it to rural fans attacking Bachchan or Shahrukh.

This sarcasm is linked to The Kerala Story’s August 2025 National Awards win: Sen for Best Director and Prashanthu Mahapatra for Best Cinematography, despite severe criticism over its ISIS recruitment story. Jury head Ashutosh Gowarikar defended the selections for “clarity on a difficult subject”, but critics called it disinformation. Sen rejoices at this neglect: “I understand why Filmfare was so vocal against The Kerala Story getting a National Award… This ‘wood’ community neither recognizes, invites nor selects us.”

As Bollywood grapples with the authenticity debate, Sen’s anger rekindles the demand for a transparent jury, pitting commercial spectacle against artistic integrity in a budding industry.