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23 Apr 2008. Describing Amitabh Bachchan as his good friend, film star-cum-politician Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesday said he was taken aback by superstar's outbursts against him over IIFA award nominations. 

Bachchan's comments on him were "unnecessary and bad in taste", Shatrughan Sinha said. 

Describing the mega star as his good friend with whom he did many successful movies, Sinha said he failed to understand the reason for his being overtaken by anger. 

Bachchan goes on to write, “I am surprised at this observation, especially since, during the time of the National Award selection for Best Actress in one of the past years, when the award went to Raveena Tandon, it was alleged that Sinha’s wife, the lovely and graceful Poonam, a great friend of Raveena’s mother had recommended the appointment of MacMohan, the brother of Raveena’s mother, on the board of the jury (structured by the government in power -- in this case the BJP, of which Sinha was a minister of state ) in order that he may cast his vote in favour of Raveena. If this alleged story is true then I do value Sinha’s alleged statement. You are so right, Shatru!” 

Getting a little more personal with Sinha, Bachchan also writes: “I have seen some very encouraging reports of the film, where your son is being introduced. May he prosper and succeed even more than his illustrious father and may he never have to face a slighted accusation of ‘fixing’, when his name comes up for an award in the future!” 

"I had just said the award has turned out to be a function of a Bollywood family and did not name anybody... there are families of Khans, Raj Kapoor and Rakesh Roshan in the films...so on what basis Amitabh assumed I was referring to his family," he said. 

Sinha said the IIFA itself did not react to his comments and asked "is Bachchan senior trying to be more loyal than the king to please IIFA (of which he is brand ambassador)?" 

On Big B's allegation that he had a role in actress Raveena Tandon getting the national award when he was a minister in the Vajpayee government, Sinha said "assuming it is true, everybody knows that there was a hand of the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government in all the awards given to Bachchan's family in Uttar Pradesh." 

He alleged all the awards lacked transparency as these were influenced by individuals, groups and politics.

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