Some tea from the Zee Cine Awards mess

Now here’s something people don’t usually realize: a lot of these TV awards heavily depend on attendance. The organizers want big names on stage for acceptance speeches and viral moments.

Initially, the Zee Cine Awards team wanted Yami Gautam to attend with Aditya Dhar, not just for her own category but also because Dhurandhar was expected to win a few awards that night. Ranveer was never planning to attend, nor was anyone else prominent from the cast.

So the organizers were hoping Yami and Aditya would represent the film on stage and accept some of the trophies. When it became clear that neither of them were showing up, things shifted.

From what I’ve heard, the organizers got annoyed enough that they decided neither Yami nor Dhurandhar would win anything that night, even though Dhurandhar had been performing really well in the voting and had strong support.

Apparently they had even planned a few comical stage bits themed around Dhurandhar and jokes related to the film for the broadcast. Since no one showed up, those segments were scrapped.

That’s when the focus moved to the other big film of the night. The team pivoted and planned a quick comedic moment with Ahaan and Aneet instead, since they were attending and their film was the other blockbuster they could build a segment around.

And looping back to the award category itself, Yami was actually the initial pick, but because she wasn’t attending, the organizers shifted gears. Kriti was then contacted in advance, told she’d be receiving the award, and encouraged to attend. So was Vicky.

This is basically why Yami seems salty about the whole situation. It’s honestly understandable if that’s how things played out behind the scenes. At the same time, Kriti isn’t really the one to blame here. She simply got the call from the organizers and showed up when they needed someone there to accept the award. Hence the shady post liking from Yami that Yami is now flat out denying.

Separate bit of tea: Adi Chopra and Mohit Suri also ensured Ahaan and Aneet attended so they could collect their awards along with the other wins tied to their film. Ironically, Adi usually prefers not to have them doing too many public appearances together, but awards night is obviously different where trophies are involved. Especially if you know how these awards work