Prithviraj Sukumaran reacts to not receiving National Award for Aadujeevitham: 'All that I ever wanted from that film...'

After his 2024 movie Aadujeevitham: The Goat Life didn’t make it to the winners list at the 71st National Film Awards, Prithviraj Sukumaran opened up about how its success matters to him the most.

Updated on Aug 04, 2025  |  01:47 PM IST |  321K
Prithviraj Sukumaran reacts to not receiving National Award for Aadujeevitham: 'All that I ever wanted from that film...'
Prithviraj Sukumaran reacts to not receiving National Award for Aadujeevitham. Picture courtesy: Prithviraj Sukumaran/Instagram

Prithiviraj Sukumaran, who was recently seen in Sarzameen, is one of the most popular actors in Indian cinema. He has primarily worked in Malayalam movies along with Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi movies. Prithviraj has given several terrific performances in films, and Aadujeevitham: The Goat Life was one of them. Unfortunately, the movie hasn’t received a National Award.

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Prithviraj Sukumaran talks about Aadujeevitham not receiving National Award

In a recent interview with Mid-Day, Prithviraj Sukumaran was asked about how fans were expecting him to be a frontrunner at the 71st National Awards for his 2024 release, Aadujeevitham.

Reacting to this, the Sarzameen actor shared that he is content with the success of the 2024 survival thriller and that no award is a “goalpost” in his mind.

“I wanted the film to work. I wanted people to like my performance, and most importantly, I wanted the world to know that man’s story. All three happened. There’s nothing else that I want from the film,” the actor said.

“If I get a National Award, great; if I don’t, congratulations to whoever gets it,” he added.

Why did Ashutosh Gowariker and other jury members skip Aadujeevitham?

According to the report, the decision to omit Aadujeevitham from the winners list of the recently announced National Awards has faced severe backlash. In an interview, National Awards jury member Pradeep Nair revealed the reason by saying that jury chairperson Ashutosh Gowariker and others felt that the “adaptation lacked naturality” and the performances weren’t “authentic”.

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More about Aadujeevitham: The Goat Life

For the uninitiated, Aadujeevitham is an adaptation of the 2008 Malayalam novel of the same name by Benyamin. Directed and co-produced by Blessy, the biographical survival drama film starred Prithviraj Sukumaran as Najeeb Muhammed, the Malayali immigrant living in Saudi Arabia. 

Aadujeevitham: The Goat Life is among the top 10 highest-grossing Malayalam movies at the worldwide box office. It is on the fourth spot in the list after Empuraan, Manjummel Boys, and 2018.

Prithiviraj now has an upcoming Malayalam film, Vilayath Buddha, in the pipeline, which is scheduled to hit the screens this year. Apart from this, he is also a part of SS Rajamouli's yet-to-be-released movie, SSMB29, co-starring Mahesh Babu and Priyanka Chopra.

ALSO READ: Prithviraj Sukumaran reacts to the ongoing crisis in Malayalam film industry: 'This whole hue and cry..'

Credits: Mid-Day
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